We have been very busy here.  We were afraid we would get bored and not be able to find enough to keep us busy but that sure is not the case.  As you all know I have always loved to teach and since I left the class room I have had trouble finding some one to play school with, but this year I found someone, right in my own back yard.  Regina is in first grade this year and you would not believe all the homework that child has to do each night!!  When she gets home from school she has two little brothers who want to play, a mother who has worked all day and would just like to sit and visit with her and a grandmother who has worked all day and just needs to rest a bit before supper so to make Regina do homework for an hour or more is a constant fight that they have no heart for and can’t see what good it was doing.  I asked if I could take over that job.  Mother and Nana were glad and Regina found she liked it also as she got someone’s full attention so now Monday, Wednesday and Friday Regina comes to my house after school ,about 3:30 while her two brothers go home with mother.  They like it cause they get mother’s whole attention and no one has to fight.  Regina and I have a snack, talk about her day and then do homework.  She still does not like home work so I make it as much fun as I can and with the three days a week we can get it all done if we stick right to it for an hour each day and since Becca does not come to pick her up until Uncle Tyler get home about 6 to sit with the twins, Gina has time to play after her hour of homework.  I make a light supper about 5 so Norman and I can eat and Regina eats a little with us then eats at home where her mother cooked supper for the whole family when they get home around 6:30.  Regina is doing much better with her writing and her spelling sentences.  Boy I don’t remember having to write sentences when I was in the first grade.  My mother would have had a BIG fight on her hand if she had to make me do that after school all day!!  Anyways, Regina is doing a great job with me to sit right with her and help keep her on task.  She has always done well with the math as that is easier for her or any first grader who has trouble reading.  I didn’t read until I was in the third grade so can understand why she is having trouble with that.  After supper we sit in the sitting room on the gossip chairs and I read a story to her.  I don’t try to make her read it, she will read it when she is comfortable doing so and until then we can just enjoy hearing the story and talking about it as we go.  I have a dozen or so dolls that I like to make clothes for and Gina gets to play with those that last hour before she goes home.  Also her Great grandad is making this house for us to play with,

This is the back, this furniture does not come with the house so I am making the furniture for it.  The set said it was for a regular doll house but really it is too small. It will look good in the house but the dolls can’t sit in it or use it.  She will just have to pretend for now.  This is what the house looks like but he is painting it a different color, using what paint he has here.  It comes in a thousand pieces and is an awful job to put together so it will take him several weeks to do but he is working at it and Regina loves to check on his progress each day. I am building the furniture and he is working on the house so we have bits and pieces spread all over the house.  

These are the dolls I got for the house.  They look small don’t they?  But the adults are about 5 1/2 in tall and the beds are only about 3 in. long so I will try to make smaller dolls , rag doll style so they fit the furniture.  All of them will fit the house as the scale is the same 1″ = 1′.   This is the set I got to make the furniture.  I
now

now have put them all together and they are everywhere also. 

Some are in front of the TV in the living room.  Some are in the dinning room where I 

am painting them.  When they dry I will put small  decals on some of them.  And some are 

in the garage waiting to be stained by Norman.  This is the dinning room set.  Norman goes out here to stain the window trim.  He will stain this set when he does the next window.  Norman has the main part of the work set up in my craft room. 

This is one wall of the house.  What dinky work this is, but it is coming along. 

You can see more of the lay out.  I think he is doing a remarkable job for a man who can’t see much.  You can see his glasses on the table on the lower left hand side.  He needs to wear that on his head to read the directions or to place those small pieces.  This is what I hope the cataract operation will make better.  Behind this is my dolls and teddy bears.

Right now Regina can’t get to them so she has to play with the doll house dolls or the larger dolls such as these two.

She plays with both in the living room for now.  When the house is done she will have to do all her playing in my craft room so we can keep all the toys and mess in there.  She is learning to put one thing away before getting out something else so even her play time is learning time too and she is doing a great job at both.  Time now to get dinner on the table and finish the painting.  Have a great day.