It is misfiring!

My brain has had some serious misfires of late. Here's the proof:

• On Tuesday I (accidentally!) put body wash in my hair instead of conditioner. I do not recommend using that as a substitute. It has taken me three days to get it out. It was Oil of Olay. Yep, there is definitely some oil in that stuff.
• I threw away John's homework paper. And, yes, I dug through the trash the. next. day. to find it. The things we will do for our kids...
• Yesterday I put the ice cream container in the microwave. Fortunately, I realized about five minutes after I did it that I had not put it back in the freezer. (I was going back for more ice cream!) Unfortunately, it took me about 45 minutes to figure out where I had put it since it was not in the freezer.
• I also woke Nathan up from his nap yesterday, dressed a very grumpy child (who normally doesn't mind getting woke up), and was on my way to wake up the baby when I realized that "oh rats, this isn't my car pool day". Fortunately, Nathan had already crawled back in bed and was asleep when I went to tell him that we didn't have to leave.

I could blame this all on decaf coffee, but that would have been last week. I made decaf in the morning for three days last week. In case you're worried, all my children are currently safe and accounted for and I have completely cleared my schedule for the rest of the week since I obviously can't handle more than one task at a time. Ah, it is a good excuse not to mop the floors today.

Getting settled in...

We have slowly been getting into a routine here at the Horn house. I have a feeling we will kind of find our rhythm and then the September activities will begin and we will have to find it all over again. The kids are settling into school. Ashley and John have been testing to find where they are at so their teachers can move forward. And we were kind of wondering when homework would really start at this house. Evidently, at least in Sara's case, it is the fourth grade. Whoa, homework has definitely arrived. Fortunately, she doesn't seem to mind it much. It has actually really helped that she gets home earlier than the other kids. It gives her time to get started on it so she doesn't feel like she is missing out much later. Nathan has been begging to learn how to read. He got so desperate the other day he convinced his sister to sit down and teach him some stuff. So I've been doing at home preschool with him (minor stuff--about 20 minutes organized work a day) and he loves it! Most of what we do is in an unorganized fashion...rhyming at the grocery store, sounding out words in the car, and counting various things. Well, he loves everything but coloring. Who can really blame him for that though? He kind of fails to see the point of it and views it only as a way to get to work on the next sheet. Joe is starting a new endeavour...Cub Scout Leader. I'm not sure who is more excited Joe or John. They are both really, really pumped about Cub Scouts. And, me, what have I been up to? Well, I am T&T (Truth in Training, I think that is what it stands for...wow that is really bad that I don't know that!) director this year for AWANA. It is the 3rd-6th graders. I'm pretty excited because up until know I've usually only taught and dealt with younger kids. I'm also still in charge of Children's ministry at church and I'm starting a new endeavour as well. But that will have to wait for another post. I want to give many details.

I'll close this quick update with a quote from Nathan yesterday: "Can we go to Africa for our next vacation?" It made me chuckle. I asked him about Disneyworld and he said "Well, I want to go to Africa and then Disneyworld." It is these moments that make Joe & I feel good as parents. Don't hear me wrong...I love Disneyworld. It is a ton of fun and I see no problem in kids wanting to go to Disneyworld. But these comments reflect what we've tried to instill in our kids...a broad picture of the world and a love for learning. Well, that, and I think he'd really like to see a lion in the wild.