A Week, Briefly (12/28/20)

 Well, we did develop colds after our trip.  We've had lots of hot tea, orange juice, and garlic.  I have no sense at all that it is covid.  We did tell the parents of our babies, and one family opted to keep their children home to be sure.  I debated getting tested--just to give others peace of mind--finally decided to do it, and found there to be not a single test appointment anywhere in the city for several days.  

 

I was finally tested on Saturday, but we're all recovered and healthy again!

 

Sir Walter Scott says that the results can be positive for several weeks after symptoms are gone and the risk of being contagious is over, so if it was covid instead of a cold, we'll know, and we can avoid people for another week.  

 

The week flew by in a flurry of home improvement, free time, and regulation of meals and bedtime.

 

Handmade Christmas card by Nature Angel--a belated wish for her church youth pen pal.

 

Our holiday eating tended to be catch-as-catch-can--not really a good idea in a family of our size and nature.  This week I worked hard on meal prep (had groceries delivered), doing what I could to get meals back on a predictable schedule, and making sure there was plenty of protein and vegetables.

 

Also, something came over me, and I began pulling down wallpaper all over the house!

 

The good news is that pulling down wallpaper is great for kids!

 

 

Our house was built in 1972.  

 

It shows!

I have hated how this house looks from the day we first looked at it.  (I am exceedingly grateful for our home; it is a very good house for our family . . . it's just ugly.)  Home improvements can cost a lot of money, and they definitely cost a lot of energy.  I guess the ugliness just got to me so that I started pulling it down--even with no paint or plan for fixing it.

I think the doors will open as they need to.

We're 4 days into our work, and we have 2 bathrooms and one half of our dining room cleared--the 2 bathrooms took an hour.  The dining room has taken the rest of the time!  It's tough wallpaper!!!

We're learning about teamwork, cleaning up, stewardship, problem-solving, hard work, perseverance, patience, and wallpaper removal techniques.

It's actually a fabulous project to be working on together--good heavy work for my sensory-seeking children . . . and my NT kids as well.

We reviewed our Children and Youth goals for 2020.  Rather than have 5 children set 4 goals each for our this program, I opted to have 4 goals for the family.  (The teens were supposed to set 8, and they were invited to join us in these 4 and supplement with 4 more or act completely on their own--with encouragement and support from home and church.)

Spiritual:  practice gratitude daily for 3 months

Intellectual:  get familiar with a new language (Spanish for most of the kids, Portuguese for Little Princess, Irish Gaelic for Nature Angel)

Social:  pick up trash in our neighborhood

Physical:  52 Hikes

We met all of our goals!

We've set new goals for 2021.

Spiritual:  develop our capacity for prayer (I've got a tentative specific plan)

Intellectual:  memorize the entire "Restoration Proclamation."

Physical:  walk a cumulative 300+ miles this year

Social:  make cards 1x month for first responders (a service project found at justserve.org)

We've already got a good start in 3 of our 4 goals (I'm setting the 15th of this month aside for card-making).

Though we're technically on a school break, I've been reading picture books about astronomers and astronomy aloud to the kids during meals.  It's the loveliest kind of informal learning, and the kids are fascinated.  

 

Here are photos of our "First Day Hike." (Celebrating New Year's Day)

Side note:  Beowulf is not doing well.  After a swing in a happy direction as his body adjusted to new meds, he seems to be regressing.  I'm waiting and watching--uncertain what is causing this negative behavior swing.

1.9 miles (In the snow!  It was quite a workout!) along our neighborhood trail.

Little Princess (now part of the Youth part of the Children and Youth program) has set as a personal intellectual goal to improve her cooking/baking skills.  She's been busy in the kitchen this week, and we've quite enjoyed the fruits of her labors!

We are doing simple activities from Wonder-Filled Days.  When I forced the kids inside after a morning building igloos . . .

. . . I scooped a panful of snow from the yard . . .

 

 . . . asked for hypotheses about what would happen to the level of the snow as it melted, and then let the kids watch it melt.

 

We also watched a couple of Youtube videos about snow formation.  The TedEd video was great!  The Feed My Curiosity video wasn't worth the time to watch it.

The kids accurately guessed that the snow would shrink as it melted, but seeing the dramatic difference was exciting to them.  I asked a few questions about having to collect and melt snow for drinking water or baths, and they were a little bit stunned to think about that.

It felt like good, simple science.

 

We began reading a book I found at The Good and the Beautiful "library."  It's called Steppin and Family.  We all really like it so far.  Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is spell-binding for everyone, but it is emotionally challenging for most of the kids.  It will be interesting to see how it goes as we continue to read.

Pixie is home again after returning to Idaho to be a bridesmaid in her roommate's wedding.  

 

 

It was a wonderful trip, and she is full of plans to find a job there and return as quickly as possible instead of staying at home for her off-semester.  She's been busy submitting her resume to several daycares in and around Rexburg.  In the meantime, she's returning full-time to the daycare here.

 Pending covid-test results, I'm not sure what the week ahead will bring.

I guess we'll wait and see.