A Week, Briefly (7/2/18)

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The biggest news of the week is that Pixie took her placement exams at the local community college, and she qualifies for any college class she wants to take.

She's registered for College Algebra this fall.

Classes start on August 22.

And I'm kind of freaking out.

We've already done this--Rose Red has taken 2 college classes already.  I know we won't die from being tied to the school schedule.  We've been tied to seminary schedules for 4 years, and we've been fine.  We've been tied to our dance group rehearsal schedule for 6 years, and we've prospered.  Pixie's been gone 4 nights a week at dance classes for a year, and that's just the way it is.

I don't know why this bothers me.

It's a blessing!

I wonder if it has to do with the fact that this is the first step on our way to her really leaving home next August.

Probably.

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My favorite overheard conversation this week took place between Ladybug and Mister Man while I was doing Ladybug's hair and Mister Man was giving us a play by play account of the book he was reading.

MM:  Oh!  Now the Hardy Boys are trapped on a boat!

L:  Why are they trapped on a boat?

MM:  They are chasing the bad guys who stole the golden pharaoh mask, but they found out that the mask isn't really gold.  It's just lead.

L:  Hey!  That's like what happened in The Maltese Falcon!

MM:  Hey, you're right!  The Maltese falcon was supposed to be gold, too, but when they scratched away the covering it was just lead.  That's just like this pharaoh mask!

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Our experiment with Beowulf and gluten has resulted in the return of stimming (banging his hears with the palms of his hands), anti-social behaviors (shutting his eyes so "you can't see me!" or refusing to make eye contact), and sensory issues (especially food-related).

None of these are horrible behaviors, and he's still a happy kid, so I'm wondering if it is worth the effort to keep him gluten-free . . . I think sometimes that just eating casually and living with the quirks is actually the happier way to be.

But then I wonder how happy and comfortable he really is if he feels the need to close his eyes and bang his ears repeatedly in order to cope with the world around him.

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 The teens ran in so many directions that we only read Great Expectations once this week.  Our book club meeting is next week, and we still have 160 pages to go!  

Pixie and her friend met up at a lake to celebrate the 4th

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Little Princess and Nature Angel got to attend a fireworks party on the 3rd with their teen sisters.

I'm totally phobic of fireworks injuries, so we've never set off our own, and it was "awesome" for them to have this privilege.
 
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Some of us celebrated the 4th of July by meeting up with a couple of friends to see Peter Pan on stage.

Brother had a wretched fever the day before, and he woke up still too warm to go with us, so he stayed home with Pixie.  He would have loved this production of Peter Pan.

Beowulf surely did.

He was excited by everything that happened, and at one point literally yelled a warning to Peter and the Lost Boys, "It's Captain Hook!!!"

Fortunately there were many, many children in the theater, and no one was bothered by his enthusiasm.

It was a bit too real for Baymax who was turning circles in my lap to try to watch and not watch at the same time.  Eventually he left my lap for Super Star's as she was further down the row and not so close to the action.

Though it was a completely traditional telling of the story, some of the lines were ingeniously interpreted into gentle comedy.  I was thoroughly engaged from start to finish, and I wish I could have taken pictures of the delighted faces of my kids or recorded their belly laughs as proof of what joy they experienced.

We had a chance to meet some of the actors after the show.

But the only picture that even remotely came out was with Captain Hook.  I love the looks on Beowulf's and Lola's faces.

On our way back to the van, we found a player piano that was on.  The kids were mesmerized.

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The elementary 8 and I headed out for the lake early early on the 5th.

We got to the beach before the maintenance staff did.

I had no idea how gross crowds of people can be.

We couldn't even get to the toilets for the piles of (revolting) trash, so two of the kids peed themselves while we tried to figure out if we could possibly stay.

Just as I was about to give the order to climb back into the van, an empty grocery sack blew toward me, and a couple of kids came running over with buckets that had been left on the beach.  Instead of leaving, we got to work cleaning up the beach.

We picked up several bags and buckets worth of trash, and we were just beginning to think we could possibly stay when park maintenance showed up.

We hailed them gratefully.

And we stayed.

It turned out to be a lovely, lovely day at the lake.  I was even able to give some very productive swimming lessons to most of the kids.

Some birds had nested in the rafters of the bathroom/shower room.  The best bird ID work I can do leads me to believe it was a family of Eastern Phoebes.  There were 4 fledglings that were practicing flying from their nests to a narrow water pipe over the shower stalls.

We spent more time than usual in the bathroom watching these sweet babies and their busy parents who fed them all day.

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Rose Red has met a young man who motivates her to work and study.

It's been a good week for her personal growth; she's almost completely done with her first OYC course.

We'll see what happens in the coming weeks.

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We had two almost-broken bones this week.

Neither Little Princess nor Mister Man actually broke a bone (thumb and toe respectively), but it was a close call, and I actually took Little Princess to urgent care after 3 days because she was just gasping with pain every time she moved.

Then the doc manipulated it, and she didn't bat an eyelash.

*sigh*

They sent her home with a splint and instructions to be careful for a week.

Mister Man's toe looked bad for a while, but the swelling was down the next morning, and he could walk comfortably, so it was nothing more than a bruise and a laceration.

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Sir Walter Scott had a hard time getting his school work done due to small but important crises that sprang up every day of the week--plumbing repairs, car repairs, paperwork, church assignments, resolving bill payment issues, etc.  By Friday night, he looked like he was carrying an extra hundred pounds of weight on his shoulders, so I left him a sandwich and took the kids to the church social by myself to give him some uninterrupted quiet time.

He got 1 out of 2 assignments finished and submitted.

He'll have a late, late night tonight after a full day's work.

(Sunday morning update:  He came to bed at 4:30 am--when he was finally done.)

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We met some new homeschool friends who have invited us to join a local Wild + Free group.

I've been trying to find/create an easygoing nature group ever since our Explorer's Club disbanded when our group leader left and none of the rest of us felt capable of taking over (this was 2015--the year we added 5 new children to our family).

I hope this will be a good fit for us.

I'm so excited to check this out!


(Linking here)