A Week, Briefly (#33)
I'm ready for school to be over.
Which is funny because that means very little in this home of ours where firm routines are necessary to happy functioning and where we'll just keep on doing what we're doing now even though we'll call it summer time.
I'm working on a summer schedule . . . and I'm dreaming of a vacation.
I guess that's what I really want. :)
We had a solid school day on Monday--lots of math, reading, grammar, writing, geography, singing, OT, etc.
Our Morning Meeting looks much the same as it did last week. I do think I forgot to mention that we're learning to sing "All God's Creatures Got a Place in the Choir." We printed lyrics and sing along with this video.
Too fun!!!
Rose Red hit her waterloo in Calculus Without Tears. Even though we decided that her math goals will be practical skills, we were continuing in CWT because she was learning to work with decimals, developing graphing skills, and coping with formulas--all in a manner that was working for her. But we hit a section that caused me to have to think twice, and because I was not confident, she panicked.
"If you can't even do it, how am I supposed to do it?" she cried.
"I need to study it for a few minutes to make sure I can explain it to you clearly," I answered.
"No! No! I can't do this anymore! You're not explaining it so that I can understand, and you're lost, and I'm lost, and I need to do another kind of math!" she exploded.
So we put it away and pulled out Math-U-See Zeta for some review of concepts she'd forgotten since January.
Mister Man, Brother and Little Brother each got a turn on my lap to narrate their memories of going to the temple as a family back in March. I used the professional pictures we'd had taken that day to jog their memories (I should have done this right away, but I didn't.)
I still need to sit with Ladybug and do the same.
We tried to go to the library on Tuesday, but it was closed for a staff development meeting. So we filled the book drop with the books we were returning and ran errands instead. Now Baymax and Little Brother have the requisite black pants to wear in the dance shows this week.
We did have Morning Meeting, and Rose Red did a full day's worth of school assignments. Belle faithfully did math lessons with Mister Man and Ladybug, and then she did her own double math assignment. Super Star and Pixie got their double math done, too.
Sir Walter Scott and I got Brother and Ladybug to their various therapy meetings while Pixie and Super Star got out the hose and the sunscreen and babysat the rest of the littles outside in the sunshine.
Mister Man insisted on applying his own sunscreen, and he has a whopping sunburn.
("He's 4 years old. He cannot put on his own sunscreen yet," I said when I saw his raw shoulders. Pixie was very, very apologetic.)
Sir Walter Scott installed 2 ceiling fans and wired another room for a central light/fan by dinnertime. Then he helped me get the littles ready for bed and took the 6 oldest off to the church for activities.
I drove the seminary carpool Wednesday morning in the crazy thunderstorms that kept us company all morning. Since I couldn't safely go running, I spent my wait time ordering library books for the summer and planning reading lists for Rose Red's and Pixie's next school year. They won't get through half of what I have, but they certainly have options!
I came home to peace and order because of Pixie's and Belle's hard work. They even had the little boys dressed and the dishwasher loaded! I scarfed down some cereal before calling everyone to Morning Meeting.
And our school day began--mostly a regular day for everyone, but the littles and I ran to the grocery store to but a rainbow for lunch.
In the afternoon we all spent quite a bit of time organizing costumes for Thursday's double nursing home performances. I discovered that Ladybug didn't have a base costume (white collared shirt, black slacks) because she didn't join the group until January of this year. I freaked out a little tiny bit. However, I found that by raiding my stash of extra clothes, I could move Mister Man up a size, give his slacks to her, and she could wear his white polo shirt out of which I'd just successfully removed the red sidewalk chalk stains from earlier this week.
During evening reading Rose Red doubled over in abdominal pain all of a sudden. I checked her out and decided she was being melodramatic.
Thursday was show day!!
We got everyone dressed, groomed and out the door by 8:15--right on time. We also had the coolers packed and every single costume piece checked off the list.
Show 1 was fun--other than the fact that Ladybug utterly melted down into a tantrum 2 minutes before she was supposed to go on stage. We had to line up the littles without her, but at the last second Dad was able to bring her to join us. A quick swipe at the tears on her face had to suffice because it was show time!
All of the littles were darling--lots of happy sighs, giggles, and smiles from the nursing home residents.
The older kids did such a good job!
We paused for a picnic lunch with some of our dance friends and then we were off to show 2.
By this time Brother and Little Brother were melting down. I pulled them (and the rest of the littles) out of the dressing room to stand at the back of the performance room to watch the other dancers. This was a big help, and when their turn to dance came, they were all smiles.
However, Rose Red was getting quite pale and nauseous. She said the abdominal pain of the night before was back and that she felt terrible.
Uh oh.
She carried on for the duration of the show, but Dad took her directly to urgent care (who sent her to the ER) as soon as the show was over.
I headed home with the other 11 kids to make scrambled eggs for supper and get them to bed EARLY.
Ladybug couldn't handle the stressful day and tried to take her seatbelt off while we were driving home. By the time we were home, she'd torn her tights up and had that look in her eye that told me we were in for it.
However, the simple supper and familiarity of home helped settle her down. Pixie, Super Star, and Belle were extra helpful, and we got all of the littles tucked in by 6:00 pm. We had a quiet evening hanging out on the back deck and reading together and waiting for updates on Rose Red's condition.
Lots of tests were run.
All of them negative.
She's a perfectly healthy (if melodramatic) teen.
The best the docs could suggest was a muscle strain.
Most of us woke up Friday morning wanting a day off to rest and relax, but our littles can't handle non-routine days, so we stuck to the routine. We had lots of odd and difficult behaviors from our fragile ones, but in the end the routines provided comfort, and the day was good enough.
We did all of our school except Ladybug's reading lesson because she flatly refused.
No problem; I'm in no hurry to push her through school.
Preschool consisted of chalking the little boys' initials on the sidewalk and jumping from letter to letter to learn the letter names and sounds.
Nature Angel practiced the art skill of finding and developing a focal point for her pictures.
Little Princess and I snuggled into the overstuffed armchair for some quality time with Beatrix Potter.
Brother, Little Brother, and Ladybug joined me on the porch swing with a stack of read alouds.
Pixie gave Nature Angel and Little Princess each a violin lesson.
Brother did OT with Pixie, too.
Belle is learning how to adjust math lessons to Ladybug's and Mister Man's individual needs.
The older girls did their double math lessons, and Rose Red completed a full school day list of assignments before leaving for work.
I took the 8 youngest to the zoo park in the afternoon--Pixie decided to come along to help me. Thank you, Pixie!!!!!
We tucked everyone into bed fairly early again in preparation for our final dance performance of the school year on Saturday afternoon.
All of the littles woke up with plenty of energy on Saturday morning, but it was Dad and the oldest 4 who headed out the door by 7:30 am to represent our family at our turn to help clean the church.
I stayed home to feed the littles and organize costumes.
We got an hour or so of housework done, an hour or so of yard work (Sir Walter Scott did more like 4 hours outside) and then we got ready to go.
The show was a delight all the way around. I'm hoping to get some photos to share eventually. Our dance year is over . . . we own our Thursdays again. It will be both lovely and lonely.
(linking here)
Which is funny because that means very little in this home of ours where firm routines are necessary to happy functioning and where we'll just keep on doing what we're doing now even though we'll call it summer time.
I'm working on a summer schedule . . . and I'm dreaming of a vacation.
I guess that's what I really want. :)
 | |
| But I these two (Sir Walter Scott and Pixie) . . . |
 |
| gave me a morning off in the kitchen on Mother's Day. :) |
Our Morning Meeting looks much the same as it did last week. I do think I forgot to mention that we're learning to sing "All God's Creatures Got a Place in the Choir." We printed lyrics and sing along with this video.
Too fun!!!
Rose Red hit her waterloo in Calculus Without Tears. Even though we decided that her math goals will be practical skills, we were continuing in CWT because she was learning to work with decimals, developing graphing skills, and coping with formulas--all in a manner that was working for her. But we hit a section that caused me to have to think twice, and because I was not confident, she panicked.
"If you can't even do it, how am I supposed to do it?" she cried.
"I need to study it for a few minutes to make sure I can explain it to you clearly," I answered.
"No! No! I can't do this anymore! You're not explaining it so that I can understand, and you're lost, and I'm lost, and I need to do another kind of math!" she exploded.
So we put it away and pulled out Math-U-See Zeta for some review of concepts she'd forgotten since January.
Mister Man, Brother and Little Brother each got a turn on my lap to narrate their memories of going to the temple as a family back in March. I used the professional pictures we'd had taken that day to jog their memories (I should have done this right away, but I didn't.)
I still need to sit with Ladybug and do the same.
We tried to go to the library on Tuesday, but it was closed for a staff development meeting. So we filled the book drop with the books we were returning and ran errands instead. Now Baymax and Little Brother have the requisite black pants to wear in the dance shows this week.
We did have Morning Meeting, and Rose Red did a full day's worth of school assignments. Belle faithfully did math lessons with Mister Man and Ladybug, and then she did her own double math assignment. Super Star and Pixie got their double math done, too.
Sir Walter Scott and I got Brother and Ladybug to their various therapy meetings while Pixie and Super Star got out the hose and the sunscreen and babysat the rest of the littles outside in the sunshine.
(All photos are by Pixie.)
Mister Man insisted on applying his own sunscreen, and he has a whopping sunburn.
("He's 4 years old. He cannot put on his own sunscreen yet," I said when I saw his raw shoulders. Pixie was very, very apologetic.)
Sir Walter Scott installed 2 ceiling fans and wired another room for a central light/fan by dinnertime. Then he helped me get the littles ready for bed and took the 6 oldest off to the church for activities.
I drove the seminary carpool Wednesday morning in the crazy thunderstorms that kept us company all morning. Since I couldn't safely go running, I spent my wait time ordering library books for the summer and planning reading lists for Rose Red's and Pixie's next school year. They won't get through half of what I have, but they certainly have options!
I came home to peace and order because of Pixie's and Belle's hard work. They even had the little boys dressed and the dishwasher loaded! I scarfed down some cereal before calling everyone to Morning Meeting.
And our school day began--mostly a regular day for everyone, but the littles and I ran to the grocery store to but a rainbow for lunch.
 |
| Oops! Forgot to show the beets we had that were purple! |
During evening reading Rose Red doubled over in abdominal pain all of a sudden. I checked her out and decided she was being melodramatic.
Thursday was show day!!
We got everyone dressed, groomed and out the door by 8:15--right on time. We also had the coolers packed and every single costume piece checked off the list.
 |
| The little boys--corralled (for the moment) and waiting for their turn to go on stage. |
 |
| Pre-tantrum and quite cute. |
 |
| Singing together to warm up their voices. |
 |
| Whiling away the time by watching what happens to paper in front of a fan. |
 |
| We took a large group photo for our director who is retiring after 10 years of volunteer service. I loved catching these two--over 10 years apart in age--communing with one another. |
 |
| Our finale this year was "God Bless the USA." Here are the littles lined up and ready to join the big kids on "stage." |
All of the littles were darling--lots of happy sighs, giggles, and smiles from the nursing home residents.
The older kids did such a good job!
We paused for a picnic lunch with some of our dance friends and then we were off to show 2.
By this time Brother and Little Brother were melting down. I pulled them (and the rest of the littles) out of the dressing room to stand at the back of the performance room to watch the other dancers. This was a big help, and when their turn to dance came, they were all smiles.
However, Rose Red was getting quite pale and nauseous. She said the abdominal pain of the night before was back and that she felt terrible.
Uh oh.
She carried on for the duration of the show, but Dad took her directly to urgent care (who sent her to the ER) as soon as the show was over.
I headed home with the other 11 kids to make scrambled eggs for supper and get them to bed EARLY.
Ladybug couldn't handle the stressful day and tried to take her seatbelt off while we were driving home. By the time we were home, she'd torn her tights up and had that look in her eye that told me we were in for it.
However, the simple supper and familiarity of home helped settle her down. Pixie, Super Star, and Belle were extra helpful, and we got all of the littles tucked in by 6:00 pm. We had a quiet evening hanging out on the back deck and reading together and waiting for updates on Rose Red's condition.
Lots of tests were run.
All of them negative.
She's a perfectly healthy (if melodramatic) teen.
The best the docs could suggest was a muscle strain.
Most of us woke up Friday morning wanting a day off to rest and relax, but our littles can't handle non-routine days, so we stuck to the routine. We had lots of odd and difficult behaviors from our fragile ones, but in the end the routines provided comfort, and the day was good enough.
We did all of our school except Ladybug's reading lesson because she flatly refused.
No problem; I'm in no hurry to push her through school.
Preschool consisted of chalking the little boys' initials on the sidewalk and jumping from letter to letter to learn the letter names and sounds.
Nature Angel practiced the art skill of finding and developing a focal point for her pictures.
Little Princess and I snuggled into the overstuffed armchair for some quality time with Beatrix Potter.
Brother, Little Brother, and Ladybug joined me on the porch swing with a stack of read alouds.
Pixie gave Nature Angel and Little Princess each a violin lesson.
Brother did OT with Pixie, too.
Belle is learning how to adjust math lessons to Ladybug's and Mister Man's individual needs.
The older girls did their double math lessons, and Rose Red completed a full school day list of assignments before leaving for work.
I took the 8 youngest to the zoo park in the afternoon--Pixie decided to come along to help me. Thank you, Pixie!!!!!
We tucked everyone into bed fairly early again in preparation for our final dance performance of the school year on Saturday afternoon.
All of the littles woke up with plenty of energy on Saturday morning, but it was Dad and the oldest 4 who headed out the door by 7:30 am to represent our family at our turn to help clean the church.
I stayed home to feed the littles and organize costumes.
We got an hour or so of housework done, an hour or so of yard work (Sir Walter Scott did more like 4 hours outside) and then we got ready to go.
The show was a delight all the way around. I'm hoping to get some photos to share eventually. Our dance year is over . . . we own our Thursdays again. It will be both lovely and lonely.
(linking here)
Can't wait to see more photos! Happy Thursdays...
ReplyDeleteWow! What a busy week. I am glad the tests showed nothing serious!
ReplyDelete