Welcome to the Wright Home!

So, after such a long break in blogging, I have a bit to catch up on. Where to start? Time has flown by so quickly that it's hard to remember, sadly. I do have pictures, but I'm having a hard time downloading from my card. Doesn't this sound like a recurring theme?

We had a fabulous Christmas- we were blessed with a get away for a week in a beautiful condo, coming home Christmas morning, driving through snow. Perfect! Hannah enjoyed all the presents and spent a lot of time figuring out what belonged to whom. Good memory for that! She really liked opening the packages and got excited about the opening equally as the actual present. It seemed like everyone got just what they wanted. Pillow pets for the younger 3 were a huge hit. The only exception was Samuel, who did not get 1 Lego set for the first time in probably 6 or 7 years of birthdays and Christmases. He did get some really neat camping things, though that he'll be using in Scouts, so that was very nice. We got blessed with a cute little Cocker Spaniel named Sammy. He's 2.5 and very sweet, great with the kids, doesn't bark much or drool, hasn't had any accidents at our house, and fits right in to the family. Right now he's an indoor dog, but Samuel and Grandpa worked together, actually all the kids had a hand in helping a little, to make him a really cute house. The cats aren't so pleased, but we're working out the differences.

We were very happy to be back with or homeschool group, although we really enjoyed our time on break. We baked and cooked and played outside and used a lot of Grandpa's tools every chance we got. It's so helpful to have a routine that we use to keep us on track. Things go by the wayside too often if we have too much time on our hands with no real necessity to get them done. School balances us. Starting the year out, I really evaluated how things were going in our house and what I could do differently, and what each person's responsibility could be in the home to make it run more smoothly. We at down and talked it out, wrote out what we needed to do each day and week, and it's helped a lot. There were days I felt so overloaded with all the responsibility I have of caring for a family of 6, homeschooling, and helping with business. It was more than I needed to be carrying, and it was my choice to let things go as they had. I have very capable children. I wasn't making the best used of their skills and this developmental time in their lives. Habits formed now will make a huge difference in their futures. They are responsible for many things around the house, and for the results of their choices to care for others in the family or to add to others' loads. We've been working on that the past few weeks and I see a big improvement in not blaming or making excuses like they used to. They still try, but don't get away with it as much as I used to let them. Even Caleb is having to step up and do age appropriate things. How does Hannah fit in this? She's a very eager helper, so given the chance to be part of any project, even those beyond her, she's all for it.

Catherie turned 9 last Saturday, and we celebrated with a baking party. (Why can't I get the pictures to open!?!) 3 of her friends came over and make mini cupcakes from scratch, donuts, and jumbo lemon-poppy seed muffins. What a great time they had. The time flew by so fast, I wasn't ready for it to be over when it was! Of course, chatting with the moms was great for me.
I've watched C really come up over the past few months. She's becoming a sweet little lady, fun of life and a cute sense of humor. I'm glad she still likes to snuggle, for my sake!

Tonight is the city-wide finals for the cub scouts pine wood derby. Samuel designed his car this year and did most of the work himself. While he didn't do as well as in past years when Buddy did the work for him, but he was quite pleased. One of the dads let him run his car for the finals. He was so excited and blessed.

I'm sure there are many more things to share, but wanted to at least get into the groove again.
Have a blessed week!