Are We Praying Now or Talking About the Weather?

We start our school day with a family Rosary.  Now praying the Rosary can be a challenge with children, especially boys, but try to picture a Rosary in a house with boys that have ADHD, Tourette syndrome and Asperger syndrome.  It can get to be a challenge to stay focused and finish the Rosary.  Well, I found that watching a recording of EWTN’s Holy Land Rosary with Father Mitch Pacwa helps us to stay focused and keeps the Rosary going even with distractions.  Since today was Friday, we were praying the Sorrowful Mysteries.

This is how it went today:

“In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.  I believe in God the Father Almighty…”

“Hey, look, it’s snowing outside,” Bubba notices.

“Focus, we’re praying,” I say.

Continuing with Father Pacwa  “…Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary…”

“But, Mom, look it’s snowing and it’s above freezing.  See, the snow is wet and…”

“Are we praying now or talking about the weather?”  I ask.  The boys start laughing, but we’re able to continue pretty well until we get to the second sorrowful mystery, the Scourging at the Pillar.

“Here we are standing outside the church of the Flagellation,” says Father Pacwa.  The boys start laughing.  Okay, it’s not as if they haven’t been watching this program now for years.

“Ha, ha, he said flatulation,” says Googie.

“No, he said flagellation, I heard flagellation,” insists Bubba.

“Kids,” I begin.

“Baaa,” interrupts Bubba.

“Focus,” I demand, “Have some reverence. We’re praying!” 

Somehow, with God’s help, we were able to finish the Rosary.  And the day had just started.

My Running Shoes

"How many pairs of running shoes do you need?" asks Hubby as I innocently bat my eyelashes and reply, "two."

"I was just wondering because you seem to have about four pairs in the closet right now," he says.

"No, I only have two pairs of running shoes in there right now," I insist.

Later, I go digging around in the closet and find that I do indeed have four pairs of running shoes in the closet.  But wait, actually I was right when I said I only had two pairs of running shoes because I'm only using two of those pairs as shoes to run with, which I would argue is the correct definition of running shoes.  The other two pairs are merely retired running shoes, like retired greyhound dogs, which I no longer use for running.  One of these pairs is my walking-around-the-house shoes, and the other pair is my walking-around-outside-of-the-house shoes.

So I felt righteous.  I had the right number of running shoes.  Each of these four pairs had their specific function.  I had no more and no less than the right number of shoes that any normal, running person would need; two pairs for running and two pairs for everyday use.  End of story. The end.

Uh, no. Well that's what I told myself until I started finding more of my running shoes.  I think that they were breeding while I was sleeping, sigh.  I found another pair shoved way, way back in the closet under a pile of shoe insoles (don't ask, that's another story).  Then I found another pair in the basket of shoes in the front hall closet.  Then recently, I was looking around in the garage and found another pair of them in the hiking-boot basket in the garage, bringing the total number of pairs to seven.  That is, until I went out onto the back patio with the dog and found another pair covered with cobwebs, leaves and who-knows-what.  That's right, eight!

So next time Hubby asks me how many pairs of running shoes I need, I will know the answer, "Eight, duh!"

Multiplication with Regrouping

Eight-year old Googie was having problems getting his math assignment completed.  The topic was multiplication with regrouping.  He had to multiply a three-digit number by a one-digit number, and regroup or "carry over" the tens place of the answer.  His assignment consisted of two sheets.  One sheet had 32 problems

and the other sheet had 8 word problems

He started to cry when I told him that this was his assignment.  "It's too hard, Mom."  So I decided to do something to get him to complete his assignment.  Part of the beauty of homeschooling is that we can adapt the assignment.  First, I turned this into a two-day assignment. Then, I rewrote the problems sideways on pieces of notebook paper.  This helped him to keep his digits in the right place value position. 

Next, instead of having him regroup the tens place digits of his answers above the numbers, I had him write them below.

This made all the difference.  He was able to complete the entire assignment without any incident.  Of course, it also helped that I fashioned a study carrel out of my cardboard cutting board to help him stay on task.

He really enjoyed this, but I don't think that I'll be getting my cutting board back.

Anyway, not only was he able to complete his math in a timely manner and with a good attitude, he was able to finish all his other subjects, plus he earned the privilege to watch a movie at the end of the day.  I would say that it was a good day.

Don't Worry About It

This statement, coming from my 8 year old, is definitely cause to worry. Yep, he could be running around acting crazy, making all kinds of noise, harassing his brother, but when he's really quiet and he says, "Don't worry, Mom."  That's when I worry.

"Goggie, did you finish your math?"

"Don't worry, Mom"

"Did you put your shoes away?"

"Don't worry."

"Did you brush your teeth?"

"Don't worry."

And of course, here's my favorite one.  You know, when it's completely quiet...you can hear a pin drop...

"Goggie, what are you doing?"

"Mom! Don't worry about it."

A r r g h ! ! !

Training for a Marathon With Team in Training

I'm so excited about my upcoming marathon race. Yes, I'm currently training to run 26.2 miles as a member of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's (LLS) Team In Training.

Training is going well. This past Saturday we went on a 12 mile run. The coaches had sent us an e-mail a few days ahead of the run with the following message, "We have some exciting routes planned for this Sat. run (and more to come...)." Apparently, "exciting routes" for a running coach is what a normal person would call "lots of crazy hills."

Even with that, my run went great. One of these crazy hills was so steep that I asked the coach were the ladder was. I'm not kidding! This hill was probably about 45 degrees. Anyway, I was able to run up the hill, but had to stop for a few seconds at the top because my heart rate had gone way, way up. I finished the run in 2 hours and 25 minutes. This included the time I spent chit-chatting at the water stops and time spent waiting for traffic at the intersections. I had on a pair of compression tights that really helped a lot and my knee and calves did not bother me the whole time. After the run, I stretched really well, ate a Luna bar, showered, put on some compression tights and iced my calves. My legs did not hurt like they did last week.

Today, I went to the gym and ran about 6 miles on the treadmill because of the crazy weather, and still no pain in my legs. Our long run this coming weekend is only 8 miles and then the mileage starts to go up past any distance I've ever run before. We have a 20 mile run scheduled in April.

The question still remains, will I make it to 26.2? Stay tuned.