A Week, Briefly (6/10/19)

Seeing the pigs from afar when we picked Belle up from the farm this week.  Those cute piggies are destined to be organic bacon and ham and pork roasts this fall.

It was an unseasonably cool week.

I'm not complaining.

Cool nights and warm days.

Perfection.

The kids spent most of their waking hours out-of-doors.

I spent most of my waking hours writing assessments--5 down, 6 to go.

(It's still weird to count 11 students, and I'm already dropping to 10 next year.  Most nights I only cook for 10 or 11 because so many of the teens are off at work and eating elsewhere.  This shrinking family stage is distinctly odd.)

These two are learning the 4-step Highland Fling to perform with our dance group this coming year.

We went to therapy, called the pharmacy, got insurance companies to cooperate with us, grocery shopped, drove teens to and from work and other activities, took Mister Man to the GI doc, took Lola to the dentist, did 4 days of Myself and Others, had 6 Morning Meetings, read books together, and watched a movie together (Seven Brides for Seven Brothers--we never get tired of it!)

Little Princess has had enough hours of boredom to seek activities to alleviate them.  She pulled out the spin art motor she built some months ago and used it to make dozens of art papers.

 

Pixie got hired at the local amusement park.  She'll be working in one of the candy shops.  She was hoping for clothing and souvenirs, but they liked that she already had a food-handler's permit, so to the candy shop she goes.  She'll keep her job at Menchie's, and she'll keep working at the dance studio, and she'll keep babysitting.

It's going to be a rather hodge-podge sort of summer for Pixie.

We went to a nature presentation at the library.

Singing a song about the cool things bats can do.

That's a 3 month old baby snapping turtle.

And a king snake.

We met friends at a new-to-us park.  We're totally going back!!!

Nature Angel went to a just-for-fun party where they made "Ugly Dolls" and went swimming.

All of the girls playing a game . . . Nature Angel's feet are in the bottom right corner.

Her "Ugly Doll" isn't ugly at all. :)

Nature Angel also did 2 of 3 days of Kids' Camp.

This is her annual tradition during which she conducts literature-based mini unit studies with the younger kids.

She is amazing at it.

She said, "I looked back at my old plans.  I'm so embarrassed.  I was so bad at teaching the kids back then."

I said, "You were 8.  You were amazing.  You were an amazing 8-year-old camp leader, and you're going to be an amazing 12-year-old camp leader.  Just because you're getting better, does not mean you were bad then."

Seriously, she's excellent.

And Little Princess is thriving as her teaching assistant.  Little Princess is a born organizer.  She struggles with inventing lesson plans, but once Nature Angel has done that part, Little Princess is ready to dive in to setting up, keeping kids under control, passing out supplies, collecting finished projects, and generally making herself indispensable.

Little Princess also made all of the pancakes for dinner Thursday night.  (No small feat for my family)

Belle finished this whole book--along with over 100 written narrations.  This ancient history study was one of her electives this year.  She agrees that Bauer's books are too heavy on wars and politics and too light on people and the arts.  But she's still passionate about ancient history.

I forgot I'd be babysitter-less on Saturday, and I didn't run any of my errands ahead of time.  It's Youth Conference weekend at church, so the teens have been away for a day and a half.  This means I adjusted my expectations to simply getting what we needed to get through Father's Day weekend, and headed out the door with 8 kids in tow to the park, Costo, and Aldi.

We only had one near-meltdown, so I call it a successful morning.

Nevertheless, I settled the kids into separate places for quiet time and left Nature Angel in charge for the 30 minutes it took me to run to the library and back.

Ladybug's, Brother's, and Beowulf's behaviors have been very challenging this week.

I'm practicing correcting my self-talk from "I don't think I can do this anymore!" to "I've been doing this, and I can keep doing this.  Just keep doing it."