A Week, Briefly (1/14/19)

photo by Little Princess

Last weekend the predicted 1-3" of snow accumulation turned out to actually be 6-11".  And it was a good, wet, packing snow that was fun to play in almost all week . . . before the kids wore the snow down to the mud, and sledding had to stop.

This is just a little guy, but he was gifted with personality.

The bigger fellow had nothing but his size going for him. :)

The dryer almost never stopped running because in addition to all of our regular laundry, I'd throw a couple of loads of coats and bibbies in after the morning play, so they'd be dry in time for an afternoon play, and I'd throw in another couple of loads before bedtime, so the clothes would be dry for the next morning play.

Belle's afternoon at the farm was cancelled--not much to do when the farm is sleeping under a thick blanket.

But Pixie went to dance 3 nights and started her American History class at the community college.  The teacher is totally happy to use the tech available to him, so she's learning how to navigate Blackboard in addition to learning the ropes of a new class and new teacher.

MOCSA and therapy at CAPA were not cancelled, so I did a goodly amount of running around as well.

And we did quite a bit of school and playdough and Lego play and reading.

And Mister Man wrote a fun little story about a rabbit, a wolf, and a weasel.  It is full of peril, but it has a happy ending.

Nature Angel is working on a report on medieval castles.

In Academy we talked about heat--convection, conduction, insulation, expansion, and contraction.  The balloon blew up by itself when the air in the bottle got warm.

We finished this book!  And now we're reading Little House in the Big Woods.

Nature Angel and Little Princess discovered The Mother-Daughter Book Club series.  They read all 6 books, talked about them incessantly, and grieved a little when they finished them.  The books are stacked on my nightstand, so I can see what all the fuss is about. :)

Ladybug finished reading all 10 books in Primary Phonics level 2, and she finished the workbook that goes with them.  She's much better at reading CVCe and ae, ai, ay, and ee vowel combinations.  I'm very tempted to purchase set 3, but that will have to wait until I give our budget a thorough going-over.  She has returned to working in her Steck-Vaughn phonics book, and that is going moderately well.

I'm seeing a cyclical pattern to Brother's negative behaviors.  I breathed deeply and gratefully when the December cycle ended, and I thought we'd brought it to a good ending by administering melatonin in order to help him sleep better, but Sir Walter Scott and I have seen "that look" on his face come back, and we've had to be on high alert to keep him from melting down.

It's hard to know if he's going to feel calm and capable . . .

 . . . or need to spend an hour kicking the house . . .

 . . . or if he'll feel he can conquer the world.

We had some really hard days when I misread signals or didn't realize there were signals to be read.  I talked about it with my therapist on Friday afternoon.  She agreed that we're living in significant chaos--she likened our daily lives to a game therapists sometimes play with older kids in which they hand the kids a deck of cards and tell them to start playing.  When the kids ask what game or how to start, the therapists say, "I don't know.  Just play."  And then the therapists change things up as much as they can to throw the kids off, so that a discussion can start.

My kind therapist said, "Only for you, it's not just a game that can come to an end.  It is your life, and you're doing the best you can with ever-changing rules."

Every time someone validates our challenges, I am incredibly grateful.

That being said, good things are happening.  We're in a season of relative peace, and I'm trying to see that and be grateful.

The teens finished their literary analysis essays about a poem by Emily Dickinson, and we had lessons about WWI and Vladimir Lenin for history this week. 

For Spanish, we've put away the textbook for a season, and we're focusing on listening and translating.  Significant peace and joy have come back to our Spanish studies, and though the girls could not pass a typical Spanish 2 exam, they are learning how to understand real natives speaking real Spanish. 

I'm happy with that.

Mister Man and Baymax are having some significant behavioral challenges.  Are they responding to the tension at home surrounding Brother?  Are they just boys trying to reach developmental milestones? 

I can't tell.

It is time to make a decision one way or the other about spring co-op.  I received permission for Pixie to teach and be POD for Nature Angel and Little Princess so that I can stay home with the rest of the kids, and I've been praying about that decision.  So far, no peace.  In fact, I keep getting the impression that my kids need some of the people at co-op and that the challenges will be worth the long-term benefit.

I'm trying to work up the courage to pray about actually going.

The preschoolers worked on the letters G and H this week.

I cancelled school on Friday because Brother had an EKG, he and I both had therapy, and there was a huge storm predicted for the afternoon and overnight, so I wanted to get the grocery shopping and library trips out of the way in case we were trapped on Saturday.

We woke up to 1/2" of snow. :)

Some big storm!

It did rain before it snowed, and temps dropped into the teens, so there might be ice, but Sir Walter Scott seems to have gotten out of our driveway and off to work just fine . . . did we fuss over nothing?

I hope so!