A Week, Briefly (3/30/20)

While ever so many others struggle, we continue to grow in joy.

We're not perfect. :)

But we're so freakin' awesome that I feel like I'm living in a dream.

Every day school happens.  We have behavior issues that we need to deal with, but they're  minor (to us), so we deal with them and pass them by.   Everyone is growing and learning.

The teens and I finished all 722 pages of The Histories of Herodotus!!!

It was simultaneously incredibly dull (too many names and details) and hilarious (Herodotus is wry) and fascinating (ancient cultures were crazy!).  I'm quite glad we read it; Belle is quite glad we read it; Super Star is okay with having read it, but she wasn't overly impressed. :)

We're on to The Oresteia next week.

Little Princess has added YoYo Chinese to her daily studies because they offered one course for free for a month!

Little Princess and Nature Angel each got a Book of Mormon in her foreign language of choice--Mandarin for Little Princess, Greek for Nature Angel.  They have been such diligent students!

Baymax had a fever on Sunday and Monday, so we didn't have Kindergarten on Monday, and he didn't have very many reading lessons during the week.  Lola had a lesson every day, and she's making lovely progress through Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.

Even with a short Kinder week, we did complete the first week's lessons, and our story was In the Forest by Marie Hall Ets.  We made paper hats to celebrate.

Lola was not happy with how hers turned out.  I did eventually get a picture with her smiling, but this one is more true to how she really felt, so I'm using it.

They turned their hats (and a number of other pieces of paper) into paper boats, and floated them down the creek.  That made the afternoon better for everyone.

Ladybug crochets two rows of her blanket every school day after she finishes her written work and before she plays.

How grateful we are to Grandma, who taught her how to do this!!!  And who gave the crochet hook and yarn!

We completed our first quarter Children and Youth goal on gratitude.

The jar isn't full, but every day for 90 days, the family put one card in per person stating something that person was grateful for.

There should be between 800 and 1,000 cards in that jar!

On our last day, we read a whole bunch of them and laughed and tried to remember who would have said what and laughed some more.  We reviewed how our family has grown spiritually by being intentionally grateful each day . . . and we can't bear to stop . . . so even though we're not filling the jar, we're still pausing at the end of each Morning Meeting to at least say one thing each for which we are thankful.

There are a lot of cards about sunshine and superheroes in that jar. :)

One of Nature Angel's personal goals is to develop greater flexibility.

Greek mythology continues to be a favorite topic for my little boys.

Every day we had time to get outside, and Sunday-Thursday we did.

You know the holes in the knees have gotten out of control when he's wearing his pants like this.  And do not ask me where his other sock is . . .  I'm not sure, but it might be in our creek.

Drying off after an afternoon in our creek

He's pretty serious about helping Dad with the trench for the septic leach line.

I'm working on building a path into our woods for the playhouse Nature Angel is building.

Nature Angel worked on laying out scrap lumber for the playhouse frame.

Lots of "Men at Work!" as they happily told me.

It was so warm, the lizards were out.

It was a high point of our day.

Nature Angel and Little Princess primed the floor of the playhouse.  We got it free from someone's yard (it had a sign on it that said, "FREE") a few years ago, and it's been sitting against a garage wall ever since.

On Thursday evening, we had a family cookout that turned into the most fun we've had in over 4 years together.  I have about a jillion pictures with dancing and s'mores and all kinds of silliness, but I'll put them on my private family blog instead of here.

However, here are two to remind me of how good that evening was and because we homeschool to help our family have joy.

That silly sad face on Beowulf isn't representative of the evening at all!

His sisters got him grinning!

On Friday a cold front came in that included freezing rain!!!

When Little Princess pointed out how pretty the trees were becoming in their ice coats, Sir Walter Scott and Nature Angel ran outside to save our baby plants!

I took pictures from inside--where I was making a nice, warm lunch.

We stayed indoors the rest of the day.

 Today is Saturday, and the sun is back.  We've been indoors for General Conference . . .

Yes, there are 2 extra children in this picture.  They're our regular Saturday babysittees.  Please don't judge us or them for having them in our home.  Their mom is a single mom who must work.  What else can she do? What else can we do?

. . . but the kids are heading into hour 4 of playing out-of-doors between sessions. 

 And I am grateful for this glorious, wonderful, joy-filled season of peace!!!