A Week, Briefly (1/20/20)

We woke up to a winter wonderland early Friday morning.

We had a week of peace.

It was incredible.

We had lots of normal challenges like illnesses, minor car accidents, freezing rain, too many dishes, kids shirking school work, and arguments over board games, but it was all so simple and . . . normal.

Such a blessing!

Poor Pixie caught a dreadful cold that kept her away from work one day (did I mention she's working full time at a day care in the 1-year-old room?), and left her weak and shaky for the rest of the week.  We pumped her full of fresh garlic, cayenne pepper tea, various menthol lozenges and rubs, and as many fluids as we could.  She's looking forward to sleeping through the entire weekend.

Super Star is safe but struggling.  She's not getting much school done--resorting to sleep as an escape.  She did complete Unit 8 of The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts with a good grade and a thoughtful essay, and she went to work, but that's about all.  We have an appointment to start the IOP next week.

Super Star's sketch of a close up of a Grant Wood painting

The weather this week kept Belle out of the driver's seat.  Freezing rain fell before the snow did, and frozen roads are no place for a novice.  She aced Unit 8, but she's struggling with her usual time-management issues about getting other school work done.  We're working out a plan for me to control her phone time more intensively.

Sweet Nature Angel wrote a whole lot of essays this week--most of them for her history program.  She's a stalwart student, and she spent her free time either crocheting her newest blanket or making a doll house for Baymax.  She's not quite done with the dollhouse, but it's shaping up nicely.

Little Princess was a bit at loose ends.  I had to remind her often to go back to her school work.  She is frustrated with an essay about Colombia that she's researching and writing, so she looked for excuses to "help" me instead.

Ladybug is responding very well to CBD oil as her only daily med.  I spent a long time researching risks/benefits, quality control, brands, anecdotal accounts, cost, and a whole lot more before actually taking the plunge.  She's become less volatile in general, she's focused during both school and free time, and she's problem-solving with greater patience.  She's taking less than half the time she used to in getting her school work done, and she's remembering her math facts!  She had a happy week with few, if any, negative disciplinary episodes.  I'm thinking we might become one of those positive anecdotal accounts.

An afternoon of Rummikub

Mister Man is plugging away each day at his literature and math assignments, and he spends the rest of the day either reading or inventing Lego superhero games.

Brother is much happier this week than last.  Through an FASD Facebook group (Thank you, thank you, thank you, Dawn!!!), I've found out some interesting information about a possible misdiagnosis that I'm saving to take to his psychiatrist for further evaluation.

His symptoms don't fit either list perfectly, but they fit the bipolar list far better than the ADHD list.   In preparation for that visit, I've begun the first stage of weaning him off his anti-depressant (which is on the list of changes his psychiatrist already recommended).  He happily counted up the math lessons remaining in his book, and he has only 15 to go before he'll be ready for the next level.  His reading fluency is progressing slowly but steadily, and he's happily learning how to spell "magic e" words.

Beowulf is rocking his math and reading.  He makes us laugh every day as he shares how he sees the world.  

Oops!  The wagon and Beowulf landed in the water-filled ditch!

Lola and Baymax continue to love Jr. K.  We've been learning the Pledge of Allegiance for a while, and now most of the kids jump up to join us as we practice.  We've gently gotten back on track with the curriculum we were using before Christmas, and we read the scheduled story about snow serendipitously on the day 4 inches of snow fell overnight.  All of a sudden, both of my babies are 5 years old!

(When Rose Red was 5, there were 3 children younger than she in the house.  When Ladybug was 5, there were 5 children younger than she!)

Oooh!  A cold day for naked toes!  His boots and socks came off as he climbed out of the tree, so Daddy helped him get them back on.

In Morning Meeting, we finished reading The Jesus Storybook Bible, and we began reading Illustrated Book of Mormon Stories.  We're had an utterly joyful 5 days of studying 1 Nephi 11-15, and I wish I had a recording of my crew singing The Iron Rod with enough gusto that the teens covered their ears.

We had 5 days of Symposium, during which we finished reading A Girl of the Limberlost and completed Unit 8--minus Belle's sketch.  She's still working on it.

We had 5 days of Lunch-time Read Alouds. (I'm going to just have to call it Academy again.)   We're just over half way through The Wonder Clock, and we've begun to listen to bird calls via the Cornell Lab of Ornithology website.  We're working on learning calls of birds that we can find in our neck of the woods in winter, so we've got Northern Cardinals, American Robins, Black-capped Chickadees, and Mourning Doves on our list so far.  In addition, we're reading selected paragraphs (I skim through for what will interest the kids) from The Cardinal by June Osborne.

Colloquium consisted of 3 days of Greek mythology.

The young ones had 4 days of independent school.  We called Friday off when Uncle Steve showed up for a surprise visit from California . . . and we had enough snow for hours and hours of fun.  This mostly included the building of many igloos, but also included a fair amount of sledding and snowball fighting.

We completed hikes #3 and #4 of our 52 Hikes.  We took Daddy with us to the cave park for a short 1 mile hike that included tree climbing, water fall climbing, and "ice skating" on the frozen pond.  It was low mileage, but high fun!

Testing the ice . . . they whacked it as hard as they could with their fists, and when it cracked, we knew it was too far!

This crack was right at the shore, and we knew it wouldn't break under the weight of our young ones, so we let Mister Man study it for as long as he wanted . . . which was a long time!

Proof that I go on these outings. :)

Brother draws his beloved van wherever he goes.

Hike #4 took place when Daddy was at work and when teens opted to stay home.  The rest of us bundled up and headed out into the falling rain/snow to hike our neighborhood hike.

Lola and Baymax refused to go unless they got to ride part of the way.  Pulling them up hills was hard work!  We left the wagon at the end of the road and picked it back up on our way home.

Nature Angel slipped going down this hill, and Theo pulled her this far before she could recover!

Catching snowflakes on our tongues

So far we've hiked 6.58 miles.

During Evening Reading the littles allowed me to switch from picture books to Gooney Bird Greene.  The Gooney Bird books are some of my absolute all time favorites, and they include full stories within a chapter, so the kids are getting the satisfaction of a resolved story along with following a plot over multiple days.  I'm grateful for the respite from either choosing books each night or dealing with the books the kids choose themselves (which can mean I have to read for waaaay too long).

The older kids and I finished My Side of the Mountain and started The Great Brain.

The snow should be gone before the weekend is gone.  I'm encouraging the completion of the igloos before the temperatures climb above freezing!