I'm so exhausted!

The past few weeks have been utterly exhausting in many ways. It all began with the arrival of Cody, our new dog. We're progressing with him, but it's very s--l--o--w! Today he did something that totally surprised me.

Lionel had a violin lesson this afternoon. I just came in the back door with Cody who was out doing his business, when the violin teacher arrived at the front door. I don't think Cody heard him come in. When the teacher came into the kitchen to ask how Cody was, all of a sudden there was growling and a few loud barks - the first we've heard - ever!!! Cody was so spooked that all of a sudden there was a strange man in the kitchen and he just put up his guard. He made no attempt to go after him. In fact, when I said "Cody, No!" he instantly stopped. He calmed down and I carried him over to the teacher so he could pet him. No growling or barking that time. After Lionel's lesson, the teacher peeked into the living room where Cody was, and said hi to him again. I was sitting on the floor next to him, so he figured that the teacher was now safe, and he didn't make a move to growl or bark then either. Phew! It totally startled me because I had my back to him and all I heard was growling. I must have turned so quickly that he knew I meant business when I said 'no'. He's just so sweet and to see this was quite a shock, but in all fairness, Cody was totally caught off guard and did what dogs do when they're in a frightening situation...this just goes to show the damage done on him when living with the 'breeder'.

Today Cody also made improvement in other areas...he climbed upstairs all by himself. Of course I had to encourage him to follow me, but he eventually did. He went into Lionel's room and lay down. He will hopefully sleep there tonight in his big crate - the one that's been waiting for him! He has been sleeping in the crate he flew here in from Kansas and we just put off switching crates to make him feel comfortable with us first. We'll see how he does. He will sleep with his new best friend "Slim" (a.k.a. Mr. Pickins) We got him this little guy at the pet store and he sleeps with him ALL the time now! Here he is with Slim...





The kids and I are also trying to catch up with school work. Lionel has been helping me with Cody late at night, so we've been getting up a bit later in the mornings. I do NOT like this schedule, but we're trying to adjust it slowly. Daylight savings time threw us way off kilter! Cody did not adjust well to the time change from Kansas, let alone this one here. Anyhow...back to school....

Lionel's history is mostly living books, so there's lots of reading. That can be done anytime, but science, math, writing and geography need to get done during school hours. Sweet-Pea isn't behind that much which is good...but even if she were, it's easily made up when you're just in 1st grade. Her main focus has been on reading and writing - the rest is easy for her to do...history, geography, science and math. She's a whiz in those subjects and in writing, but reading has been difficult for her. She's getting there though and I believe before the summer is over, she'll be a great reader all on her own! She can't wait to master it because there's a whole slew of American Girl books just waiting for her to read on her book shelf! That is a great incentive for her to push on and learn to read well.

One fun thing Lionel and I have been doing at night together has been watching educational movies. We watched Gettysburg this past week in 30-40 minute segments each evening. Despite some of the language in parts of it (why do they slaughter perfectly good movies with swearing?!?), the movie as a whole was fantastic. I remember watching it a while back, but for some reason, I really felt that the characters came to life this time around. My guess is because I was watching it with him and we were learning all about the Civil War together. We also watched Luther (awesome movie!) and First Knight. I'm going to get a couple movies from Answers in Genesis next to watch with him...those should be great!

We recently purchased a wonderful cd audio set from Vision Forum....I LOVE that website and highly recommend checking it out for some quality educational items for your children if you have time. For some reason the site doesn't seem to open up with Firefox all the time, so use Internet Explorer if it doesn't work for you. The actual address is: www.visionforum.com
Anyhow, I was able to purchase the set at 50% off. Included are cd's on the life of Augustine, Luther, Bunyan, Edwards and Whitefield. Lionel is anxious to listen to them all - he loves these type of books. They all were narrated by Max McLean.

Well, it's late and as my post says...I'm exhausted! I need to take Cody out and then try to get him up to Lionel's room for the night. Please continue to pray for our dog and the situation with him...pray for him to be loyal, obedient and gentle. The growling today was out of character for him, so we're praying that it was an isolated case. At least it was totally not aimed at us. That's a good thing. He's never growled at anyone else he met for the first time, so we believe it was because he was caught off guard. Have a good evening!!