A Fly On My Homeschool Wall

Easter Sunday began for us with a twist on the Easter basket tradition.  Instead of a basket for each person, we had a family basket filled with breakfast goodies and some simple presents that could be shared among everyone. The cardboard box on the left has new heavy duty swings to replace the broken ones in our swing set. The teens get to attend Mamma Mia live next week! We spent the morning jump roping and bowling on the deck together until it was time to go to church. After church we headed up to my sister's house for dinner with cousins and Grandma and Grandpa. Here are too many pictures. :) Watching and waiting for the signal to collect eggs That's my sister on the right, and she's giving directions to the tweens about how to do their scavenger hunt after the little kids collected eggs in the yard.  It was really well done and kept this crew hopping. The teens got their very own Easter puzzle to solve before r...

3 chiropractic visits 2 psychiatric visits 2 dental check ups 1 doctor visit 2 trips to the pharmacy . . . That's a lot of medical stuff for us to deal with in one week.  I hope this is not our new normal. Monday was full of life-learning experiences--and not the warm fuzzy kind. Pixie's back is quite hurt.  Our chiropractor is confident he can fix the problem, but we're looking at several weeks of regular appointments and many missed dance lessons. Dad took kids on bike outings--2 sets for 2 skill levels.  Baymax took a dive over his handlebars.  I'm just glad he was wearing a helmet!  I have to keep working at not wondering what might have been without a helmet. And Brother had an epic meltdown that defies description--it lasted over 3 hours.  Ever since my initial rejoicing at how magically his meds helped him, he's been a little bit worse each day.  Now he's worse on the meds than off.  On Monday night I was more than a littl...

The week began with General Conference and the inaugural use of the slack line we got for Christmas. Hopeful helpers and hard-to-waiters as Dad got it ready. Then we dove into school as usual with Morning Meeting, Symposium, Academy, and individual school activities every day of the week.  It was pretty routine, and we're all a step (or several) closer to putting the books away for a season. And the slack line got lots more use as the kids figured out new ways to develop their balance. I received half a dozen wildflower bouquets--everyone is happy it's spring! Special events included the completion of Easy Peasy All In One Homeschool Getting Ready One (preschool) by Beowulf, Lola, and Baymax! Beowulf with his final letter project. Lola and Baymax each with their binder and favorite letter project. That's a stack of preschool projects for 3 kids!  They dove the very next day into their new activities. For Beowulf this mean...

Prom was Saturday night.  In my family, only Pixie and Super Star were able to attend as it was limited to ages 16-18. (Poor Belle--it was hard to be left out.) Sir Walter Scott was driver to half a dozen couples who made a fun evening complete with pictures, dinner, and then dancing at the prom. selfie by Super Star  professional photo candid shot by Dad as these two waited for their turn with the photographer Some of the couples came back to our house to visit for a while, and Belle got to join in that. (It definitely took some of the sting out of the evening.) And then we dove into a 3-day school week as we had a psych appointment for Beowulf followed by our final nursing home show on Thursday.  Then I'd reserved Friday to attend a homeschool conference, but that got changed into a mom-to-mom homeschool conference in my home with a friend who is bringing her kids home and wanted a little time to ask questions without the muss-and-fuss of a several-...