A Week, Briefly (5/14/18)

Slightly lower temperatures (still hot, though) and various outings gave me an excuse to skip water play and allow for some physical and mental organizing that will create more room for water play in the weeks to come.  I was able to: 
 
*Clean the mudroom, processing all of the winter clothing through the laundry and into storage for the summer.  8 giant loads.
*Sort through my closet--clearing out piles of unwanted clothing  (I found some old maternity clothes hidden in a corner!)
*Deliver 6 giant bags of unwanted stuff to the local thrift store
*Convince Pixie, Super Star, and Belle to begin sorting through their own clothing and belongings

Sir Walter Scott finished the chicken yard!  Our chickens are happily spending their days safely outside.  They walk down their ramp just fine each morning, and I see them walk up and down during the day, but they have not at all figured out how to go back inside at night.  So far they try to roost under the coop, so Belle has to crawl underneath, pass the chickens out to me one at a time while I put them on their ramp and guide them into the coop--hoping they'll learn how to do this themselves!

(I'm sure those of you with chicken experience are laughing at us!)

We're researching whether we should stop and leave the chickens to their own instincts or keep trying to teach them.

Summer Storytime
1.  If I Ran the Circus by Dr. Seuss
2.  No story--we went to the Co-op Spring Showcase instead and had a picnic lunch there.
3.  No story--we went to a birthday party at the park and had another picnic lunch!
4.  Just Me by Marie Hall Ets
5.  No story--we headed off to the homeschool camp out!

Rose Red ran off, came home to suddenly complete a few hours of schoolwork,  ran off again and came home again.  Resources she used this week include:

*The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. DuBois (continued from last week)
*Open Yale Course CLCV 205--Intro to Ancient Greek History
*Secrets of Great British Castles--Netflix documentary series

Mister Man has been drawing portraits of family members.  Above is Ladybug's.  Below is Rose Red's.  There are many more floating around the house, but I haven't gotten pictures of them yet.  While they are simple drawings, typical of a 6-year-old, I find them quite endearing and well-representative of the living people in our home.

 

Super Star received a callback for the musical!  That happens this weekend--at the same time as the homeschool camp out AND a graduation party for one of the girls' oldest friends.  Urgh!  It's going to take a lot of coordination to make this happen, but for now, we're rehearsing the songs and script!

Pixie's dance session ended, and she misses it sorely.  She'll miss the first full week of the next session because of Girl's Camp; she can hardly wait to get back to it.  In the mean time, she's doubled her working hours each week in order to be ready to pay for the next batch of lesssons.

The teens and I are still reading The Hound of the Baskervilles, and we began Great Expectations in preparation for our summer book club.  I find it funny that both books have British moors and escaped convicts figuring prominently in the stories.

Nature Angel organized my small people into some engaging and involved costume play one tired afternoon.

 

Mother's Day nurtured my heart in ways that I sorely needed.  Pixie organized the kids into presenting a half hour long show (complete with printed program) that included poetry, music, and a slide/video presentation.  I haven't had any warm fuzzies in so, so, so long, and this show gave me lots of them.

Below are screenshots of the organizing elements of the presentation--between were photos and videos and video interviews with each kid.  It was 8 1/2 minutes of heaven.

I was getting so hard in my mind and heart, but after my Mother's Day gift, I've begun to think that we need some warm fuzzies every once in a while.

I also had a birthday, and I got even more sweetness on that day.  I woke to flowers on the counter and a treat in the fridge (I'm the first awake each morning), and everyone truly tried to make the day special for me.

Ladybug had such a hard, hard time understanding that I didn't want toys or games or books as presents.  She wanted to give me something, and I explained that I've been cleaning out and organizing our home, so I didn't want a new object to have to take care of.  I'd actually asked Sir Walter Scott and the older girls to simply clear out a bag each of unwanted belongings as their gift to me (the same gift I've asked for 3 years running).  I tried to explain my desires simply to Ladybug, but she could not wrap her head around it at all . . . asking me at one point, "Would you like a stuffed animal to cuddle with at night?"

My heart cracked a little at this question because I knew she was pondering which of her own stuffed animals she could offer me--at great personal sacrifice.  I looked her squarely in the eye and explained gently that I did not want a stuffed animal at all, and I thanked her for her kind question and sweet desire to share with me.  I asked her to do her very best to choose the right and let that be her present to me.

She smiled.

But she was still so confused and lost.

And then she urinated on herself.

I wonder if I asked too much of her.  Perhaps I should have accepted her stuffed animal and called it good.

I don't know.

I do know that she was trained by the therapeutic school she attended when she joined our family to believe that presents=love.  Every session of therapy, every event she participated in, every lesson learned came with a tangible gift . . . it was a warped way of trying to give the children something that was missing in their regular lives.

I'd like for Ladybug--for all of my children--to learn that tangible gifts are lovely once in a while but that the truest gifts are love and faith and hope and family.

Truly, that is a lesson that even I as an adult am still learning.

And the homeschool camp out was this weekend.  We just day-camped because of Sir Walter Scott's work schedule.   Friday was lovely and warm, and most of us spent the day on the beach.

But Baymax developed a fever, so I spent the evening with him on my lap (which gave me the luxury of visiting with friends) while Sir Walter Scott watched the rest of the kids play (the much harder assignment because of all of the trips to the pit toilet) until it was late enough to convince them it was time to go home.  We woke to rain, a continued fever in Baymax, lots of snot from Lola, and a nagging cough out of Beowulf.  I had a sore throat and a pain behind my eyes, so I hunted down a Parent On Duty (POD) for my teens, and they headed out to the second day of camping on their own.

Super Star's callback experience was amazing--the director calls her "stunning."   We'll know what role is assigned to her next week sometime.

I'm so excited for her!


(linking here)