Ice days

Well, we survived our ice storm of 2014.  Praise the Lord we had no power outages, but we did have lots of sleet...that made for interesting snow balls and general getting out of the house.  We homeschool, and much to Ethan's dismay, we don't have "snow days" at the Cole Family Homeschool.  We do school.  It's not like we can go outside and enjoy ourselves much anyway.  So, here are a few things that happened in ONE DAY of the ice storm.

We are sitting at the table doing our Bible time.  We are talking about the Ten Commandments.  One question asked is how do Christians in today's world break the Ten Commandments?  Oh, here you go:
Caleb:  I don't covet.  I don't want anyone else's toys.  I just want to go to Wal-Mart and buy my own.
Ethan: Caleb, you break the ten commandments.  You lie.
Caleb: I don't covet though.

Ethan was more worried about pointing out Caleb's sins than he was his own and Caleb was very proud of himself for not coveting.  Round and round they go when I finally have to tell Ethan:
You have enough sins of your own to be worrying about, quit pointing out his.  (Yes, we do need to help others overcome their sins, but when he is not even thinking about his own, it's starting to raise the blood pressure of everyone in the room, especially the 4 year old whose sins he is pointing out.)

John is home for his spring break so he is entertaining Linley Claire and Caleb in the hallway.  Ethan and I are at the table doing math. Normally, Ethan's favorite and easiest subject. Today was no different.  His math skills really do amaze me, I know I didn't teach this stuff to 1st graders when I was teaching and he literally flies through it.  However, this day, he wanted to be in the hallway wrestling with Dad and Caleb.  So, adding two digit addends came super easy, but major time consuming because all he wanted to do was go join in on the wrestling.  Enter, melt-down mode and voluntary time-out on his part.

I move to the hallway and start writing down all of the spelling words for our spelling activity,  Here comes Linley, grabbing more chalk and writing on the same board.  And here comes Caleb, grabbing the eraser, erasing Linley's work, trying to fix my words. Enter Ethan, standing beside me pouting ready to do the fun spelling game.  Me, in the floor, surrounded by three kids, all with different agendas on the chalk board.

After spelling, it's time for lunch. (Note here: I am terrible at potty training. I will not potty train LC until she begs.  Lately, she wants to take off her clothes and sit on the potty.)  All of a sudden Linley is walking around with no diaper on.  I go to get her diaper back on...enter melt down.  We make it half way down the hall, and I realize there is something on my arm, enter my melt down.
Me: Screaming hysterically: THERE IS POOP ON MY ARM!!!  AAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!
John comes running up the basement stairs once he hears me screaming, Ethan and Caleb run to Linley's room to see the cool poop on Mom's arm.  Linley is still screaming because I have to put a diaper on her.  Then begins the hunt for the poop.   Be careful where you walk boys.

Lunch is finished now to finish up reading.  We are discussing a story on a brave soldier who went to war. He had to fly in a plane to make it to Qatar.  Ethan is into it.  Then begins the questioning:
Me: So, how did the soldiers get to the war?
Ethan: on a plane.
Me: And how long did the story say it took to get there?
Ethan: Long enough for sleeping on the plane.  What did they eat on the plane?
Me:  Well, it took around 8 -12 hours to get there so they probably had a couple meals.
Ethan: Did they eat supper?
Me: I don't know.
Ethan: Was it good?
Me: Probably not, airplane food isn't usually good. (Not to mention this is United Airlines we're talking here.)
Ethan: What did they eat for lunch?
Me: I don't know, probably sandwiches.
Ethan: What about breakfast?
Me: At this point I'm starting to lose it and laugh hysterically because we are reading about a brave soldier and we're having a 5 minute discussion on what he ate on the plane ride. Oh yeah, did I mention I'm pregnant so my head isn't screwed on right anyway.
Ethan: In my face now, PANCAKES!!!! DO THEY EAT PANCAKES?
Me:  I doubt it, probably biscuits.
Now, trying to redirect back to the point of our lesson was a quite a challenge but once we figured out the eating situation he was ready to move on.

The kids finally go outside to play in the snow/ice. I'm working on dinner and run on the back porch to place the scraps out.  All of a sudden I hear a "WHOOOSSHH!" And something goes flying beside me and lands on the porch.  Then I hear in a whisper:
Man, we almost got her.
It's Ethan talking to Linley. Of course, I laugh about it and told him he was pretty close as I'm walking back into the house.  I turn around to say something to Ethan and am holding the door when something comes flying at my head. Enter evasive action maneuver (as Ethan stated today)... and 007 music:   I grab the door to block, I stealthily duck and do some sort of dance, you know-because of my cat-like reflexes, the ice ball sails by and hits the door and explodes into the kitchen.  Of course, I scream which makes it even funnier that they almost got me, in the head, with an ice ball, and ice is now all over the kitchen.

I'm thankful we survived the ice days, but man.  I thank God for bringing on the spring.