Learning Curve

We are all learning.
We are all at different learning leaves and we learn at different speeds.
This week it has been fun to watch the boys learn (or forget and have to re-learn).

Matthew
I don't know how he learned how to do this because I haven't taught him but the other night when putting on his pajamas he insisted on buttoning the buttons himself.  He wouldn't let us help him and it took a while to get it done but he did all four buttons on his own.  He was so proud of his accomplishment!  This morning he tried to button the buttons on his Sunday shirt and had a difficult time, getting very frustrated and finally giving in to letting me help him.  To be fair the buttons on his pajamas are much bigger than the buttons on his church shirt.  What interested me most was that he knew what he needed to do this morning but just doesn't quite have the dexterity to handle such small buttons.  He tried anyway.


David
This requires a little bit of back tracking.  Last Saturday we all worked really well and quickly to get our jobs around the house done so that our home was nice and neat for Sunday.  As a family we were able to spend the afternoon watching a movie together and relaxing at home.  (It's way to cold to be playing outside and we didn't need to go anywhere.)  On Friday we were talking about our plans for yesterday (Saturday) as a family.  We knew we needed to help clean the church and get our house put together for Sunday.  We would watch Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in the afternoon since Dustin & David had finished reading the book.
Yesterday morning we went to the church to clean.  David immediately claimed the trash cans because that's what he really likes to do and he can do it by myself without supervision.  He eagerly put the card around his neck and set to work, finishing his job in a timely manner.
Getting jobs done at home was not so timely.  While the rest of us worked on our jobs David decided to read a book instead.  He didn't finish his jobs until much later in the day after having the consequences of not finishing them explained several times.  David finally finished one of his jobs about an hour before it was time to start dinner, which he needed to help with.  Once upstairs he went to the movie cabinet to pull out Harry Potter and we had to explain that there was no time for us to watch the movie because of how late it was before all of our jobs were done.  David was disappointed, as expected, but we explained that we could try again for next Saturday.  Here's hoping the lesson sunk in and we get to have our Saturday afternoon movie next week.

Christy
I am currently re-learning how to manage my home.  I have come across many different ways to be a better home manager and with Dustin preparing to ship out to Basic Combat Training and a baby on the way I decided now was the time to get my home in order.  So far I have redone a little bit and stuck with it for a week, so I'm hoping to change a little bit more this next week and to continue from there.  Changing my managing, applying it for a week or so until it sinks in and sticks, and then changing something else.  I have also been relearning how to better manage my time so that I can fit in my scripture study and exercise into my day.  I have missed a few days with scripture study but I'm working on not missing days - it's a process, I didn't expect to be perfect over night, just to work towards getting there.

Dustin
Preparing for leaving our family and joining the Army.  He goes back and redoes some of the training modules to help him stay current on the things he needs to know while he's in Basic.  He does pass his knowledge on to me or tells me where I can find it for future reference while he is gone.  Dustin has had to learn the phonetic alphabet, military time, army values, rank structure, personnel recovery, etc.  It really has been interesting.  Funny thing - it's all printed off and sits in the bathroom on the toilet, but mostly he studies from his art room on the computer.
**Dustin's form of communication when he leaves will be letters only.  If you would like to write him please just send the letters here and I will forward them to him, we don't have his mailing address yet and won't get it until 2-3 weeks into Basic Training.  Any letters of encouragement will be greatly appreciated.  He may not be able to respond to all that write but he will appreciate the thought and enjoy the communication from friends and family.