lack of sleep

I will become coherent when I will be getting more sleep, but, for now, it is what it is.

The baby is almost 5 months. He is a chunkster, he is nursing exclusively, so I am always on. He is a very sweet-natured baby, rarely cries, and goes perfectly with our schedule: go with the flow. That is all nice and dandy when we run out in the middle of the day at all hours, but it is a real issue when I try to get everyone down for the night. All my kids have bedtime, and, most nights, they are in bed by 8. My oldest was always early to bed, early to rise, 3 yo pretty much stopped napping unless she falls asleep somewhere, and 7 yo can usually settle down some time around 8:30-9. But the baby is not consistent in going down. He is also up at night, a lot. He does not cry, but he is cooing and kvetching. Sometimes he takes a paci, sometimes he just wants to nurse. Sometimes he just wants to be held. Always, I am the one who is not sleeping.

Meanwhile, the sleep deprivation is compounding. I walk around in a fog. Thoughts enter and flee like could wisps. Ideas pop in and out. To do lists never get written down. Planning seems like a remote concept, reserved for those who know what it is that they want to accomplish.

The more traditionally-oriented homeschoolers are discussing plans for the upcoming year. I am just grateful that chagim are so early, and we will not be starting till after, in October. My formerly organized sunroom is slowly descending into chaos, as I am not doing even basic maintenance. The level of clutter is reaching a point where it is starting to bother me, but not enough to do anything about it. I know that once the baby becomes mobile, I will have to solve this issue, and quickly. For now, I went to Target and got those items that went missing: scissors (probably in the backyard), rulers, erasers. They are sitting in Target bags, waiting for a moment of lucidity to be labeled and put away.

One thing that I have planned is to do only two subjects "formally": chumash and math. We have been doing chumash since the boys got back from camp. Some days it is going smoother than others. 7 yo is reading nicely, and he is finding the workbook (Bright Beginnings) to be a breeze, but he is not letting on much. 9 yo alternates between all raring to finish up a perek and sulking about doing every single pasuk. I dropped Rashis for now, but he is still anxious that we MIGHT be doing one.

For math I will be using Math Mammoth for 9 yo and a slim workbook of Spectrum Math for 7 yo. I am not sure if I will be assigning pages, or just telling them that a certain number of pages need to be completed each week, or just giving them a chunk of math time daily. I thought about this hard, and realized that I am not sure that they will get the necessary skill level otherwise. They are demonstrating the use of concepts all the time, but I think we need to finish all basic arithmetic before I would be ready to let go.

Other than this, we are continuing with taekwondo. Also, we will continue with classes at the coop. which is one morning a week. Other than that, there are homeschool programs at the zoo, art museum, science center. There are field trips which are planned through coop. There is Spivey Hall. I think we can get quite a nice program rolling without more planning.

Meanwhile, if I could only get more sleep...