A Week, Briefly (Jan 17, 2022)

 We're in the zone:  chores, school, family time.

It's the zone I always want to achieve, and I'm so grateful we're here.

The first day at dance was good.  We did a show run through, just to see what we did and did not remember; there's significant review to do!  I was right that the covid surge would affect our ability to perform in the community.  We do have two shows scheduled, but none at nursing/rehab homes.  We'll have lots of time to rehearse and have fun and work on our Friends and Family show planned for mid-April.

Nature Angel, Little Princess, and I all agree that our preschool activities are just right for our little ones and our family.  The older kids love to join in for some of the sensory activities and crafts, and Nature Angel said, "Knowing what we're doing and having it all planned and easy is letting me do better at school and keeping me from feeling frustrated with the toddlers.  It's just nice to have a plan that they like, too, and not have to chase them around the house trying to keep them out of mischief."

My favorite activity this week was making pretend soup.

I took The Munchkin outside to collect stuff from the yard, and then we added it to a bowl of water and stirred it all up.  

I just sat on the floor with Sugar Bear in my lap and tried to keep the kids from actually eating the pretend soup. 

They stirred and explored for nearly half an hour.

We did shaving cream play several times.

The picture includes only littles, but my medium sized kids played happily, too.

And play dough!  There was so much play dough play this week!  Rolling, cutting, shaping, hiding, stretching, smashing, and imagining.  

Ladybug finished another reading/narration book.  She's narrating a minimum of 3 sentences for each chapter she reads.  Slowly but surely, she's spelling and punctuating more accurately.  She's also beginning to narrate more coherently.  It's lovely progress.

Little Princess has been deep in several serendipitous library book finds about outer space and space programs.  All week long she has shared what she's learned from this book:

It is as joyful for me to hear her talk about outer space as it is for me to watch Pixie teach and dance or to see what Nature Angel creates.  

What a marvel it is for kids to find their passions!

Nature Angel is still crocheting regularly (her most recent project being a non-operational "gun" for Baymax), and she is sketching again.

She's trying to decide how to paint this one.  (Yes, it is the back of a canvas, but she uses whatever she has when the need arises.)

This one will remain a sketch.

In spite of our good routine lately, we are still having lots of behavioral issues.  

I didn't plan well, and we ran out of CBD oil, so Ladybug has been very out-of-sorts lately.   Our order cannot arrive too soon!

Lola seems to be coping less and less well with her stimulant med, and I'm not certain we can continue it for much longer.  Even with the med in her system, she's been nearly incapable of handling any school, and it hurts my heart to see her struggling . . . especially after seeing her do so well for a short season.

 

Brother and Beowulf each had several violent outbursts.  Fortunately, Brother seems to have learned how to go outside without actually running away, and he comes back inside able to apologize and be calm again.  Beowulf is less capable of managing his feelings after an outburst has begun, but he did come to me many times this week for a hard squeezy hug to help him re-center.  I am grateful for both boys' progress.

Belle finished her FAFSA, and she's been working on couple of scholarship applications.  Her College Algebra class started this week.  She likes the teacher, and after a lifetime of self-instruction in math, she says it is really nice to have someone explain and demonstrate the concepts in real time!  So far the class is easy.

We didn't start or finish any books, but we made lots of progress in Mr. Revere and I and The Golden Goblet.  The kids are so caught up in the mystery of The Golden Goblet that they don't settle down for sleep very well right now!  I guess a little extra activity is worth their passion and excitement for a good story. :)

After dance, when we were all wrung out, and it was well below freezing outside, we watched 2 episodes of Night on Earth.  The kids would have watched more, but I had dinner ready.

Temperatures are making dramatic swings from single digits to high 40s, and we are trying to be adaptable.  Yesterday the kids rode bikes and jumped on the neighbor's trampoline for 5 or 6 hours because the weather was so mild.  It was a treat to work out some of the winter cabin fever that built up when the wind and cold made playing outside a challenge.