On to week 2.

Week one of life as an out-of-home-schooler was chaotic, as expected. My planner is full of "mandatory" parent meetings I'll never make it to, reminders of activities I actually hope I make it to, and little space for anything else. Next week begins the violin lessons which both children are very excited about. Can you imagine my house? *2* beginning violinists practicing the suggested 20 minutes a night? Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ!

And before all my Christian friends faint from shock that I used that phrase, it came directly from a series of books I've been reading. It's called the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. I :bigpuffyheart: this series and have blown through them at a speed I even impressed myself with. The only lull in reading has come from the fact that I have finished one and found myself without the next in the series. I seriously debated buying each and every single one but couldn't afford the nearly $100 price tag that would have come with, lol. Ok, maybe only like $50. But I still couldn't afford it. Anyway, it's about this woman after WWII who accidentally, through methods I will not disclose, finds herself in the 1700's. It's also very nearly a romance novel involving a kilt-wearing highlander named Jamie who is, in my mind, exactly what every woman wishes every man were like. (Those of you who know me well are all now nodding their heads having realized the reason *I* love these books. To you I say "just wait, you'll see that these books are even more me than you are now thinking".) To coin a very modern term, I imagine he's HAWT. That brings me to that phrase I used above. Claire, the woman who is accidentally in the 1700's, uses that phrase in like 1767 and gets quite the round of odd looks, lol. The writing was so good that the image of that moment was burned into my memory and the phrase along with it.

Meanwhile, while the kids are away at school, Oak has been taking advantage of 2 fewer sets of somewhat watchful eyes and wreaking havoc among the clutter and congestion of the house. Fully walking, he is now into EV.VA.REE.THING. Coupled with a large dog who is now about 85% of his potential obnoxiousness and wowza, is this house hopping. You know that book "I'll love you forever"? Well, that's my kid. He unrolled a roll of toilet paper in the bathroom this morning while Neall was in the basement doing laundry. I shooed him from the bathroom while attempting to wrangle the mess(narrowly avoiding his amazing reach to flush the toilet full of paper and other assorted objects) and turned around mere moments later to discover that he had pulled each of the kids' sock baskets from their shelves and undone each and every pair, spreading the individuals around the room, under the dresser, and in the dog's crate. I again attempted to redirect him to more suitable activities and he somehow managed to de-battery-fy every television remote he could reach and I've yet to discover just where the batteries have been deposited. At this point I gave up all hope and retreated to the bedroom where I read my book with complete disregard for any chaos happening downstairs. Here's the problem. I finished the book, don't have a copy of the next in the series, and no hope of getting my hands on it until this weekend (unless I get it for my birthday HINT HINT). So how will I escape the ever growing chaos Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday? Well, we'll just have to wait and see now won't we. I'll think of something, I always do?