Parenting notes

Today has been an interesting morning. I kept to my routine last night and woke up around seven, came downstairs to find Elder was already up and ready for the day. I told her that I was going to brew my tea, meditate, and go for a run, and she insisted that she wanted to come with me. I was against it, but she started by sitting with me while I meditated, for almost the entire twenty minutes. Younger tried to join us for a minute, of course she wanted to come with us on the run. So I went for a full two-mile jog this morning, with the two of them right behind me most of the way. It wasn’t quite the peaceful mindless jog that I’m accustomed to, but it worked enough. By the time we got close to the house they took off without me, and I was able to finish up with my customary, strong all-out sprint.

I can definitely feel the improvement. I’ve been keeping up with it regularly for a couple weeks now, and the workouts and runs are starting to have an effect as my body adjusts. I just need to keep pushing. I’m trying to figure out my daily routine for this break from work, prioritizing exercise is doing me good.

I’m starting to get some things done around the house as well, cleaning out things that need to go and taking care of small things that need taking care of. Sorting through the dozens of kids shoes that don’t fit either of the kids, for example, putting away all the winter gloves and hats that are still sitting by our organizer. I’ve got a lot of my stuff I’ll be taking to the goodwill as well.

Elder is finishing up her math placement test today. She did well on her reading one Tuesday. She had a big blow up over chores yesterday but made up for it by reading her sister books before bed yesterday. Restricting television seems to be having mixed results. It’s not spurring them to do their chores the way I had hoped, but they’re getting along without it for the most part with creative play, which is about all I can ask for anyways. Younger is playing with her toys in the living room, I’m still doing writing with her, reading and skills on IXL most every day, but the IXL skills are getting to the point where she needs more help to get through them. She’s been having issues counting from twelve to fifteen since she can’t enunciate thirteen from fourteen. I tried teaching her how to use a toy abacus that I got a while back, but it’s going to take a bit more work.