A Week, Briefly (Mar 28, 2022)

 It was a hard week.  

Monday seems like a lifetime ago.

We took the day off regular school even though the weather was not as lovely as was predicted the week before.  Kids played in and out, I got a few small things done--my big plans were sidelined by an extra baby (one was in the hospital for respiratory issues, so we had his little brother) and yet another cold making rounds.

I stand by my opinion that it's good to be building up our immune systems again, but I do look forward to the day when our false protection from quarantining is over, and we don't pick up every bug with which we come into contact.

For our days off, I decided to make good on my promise to the kids to have some cooking lessons this year.  

On Monday we made pita pizzas, fruit salad, and peanut butter filled celery.  The kids got to wash and cut and spread and sprinkle.  

We made the pizzas first, so they could cook while we did other preparation.

Li'l K got to make his own pizza because Nugget was still asleep in the crib that Li'l K ususally sleeps in. 

And then they ate heartily while I read Farmer Boy to them.

Tuesday was warm and spring-y, but we still had so many babies, and so much illness, and such a long cooking lesson, that my projects went unheeded again.

This time I printed a recipe for non-yeasted pizza dough that would work with all-purpose as well as gluten-free flour, divided the kids into groups of two, and helped them through making a batch of pizza dough that could be divided in half for a personal pizza each.

They were delicious and filling!

Next week, we will work on making the dough again, so the kids can increase their familiarity and develop their pizza-crust-making skills.

Perhaps an odd, but definitely fun and interesting place to start in the kitchen!

I truly dislike cooking with kids, so I was exhausted emotionally and physically after these two days.  I was so glad to get back to just whipping up meals efficiently and focusing on school on Wednesday.

Brother had some terrible breakdowns.

So did Beowulf.

When Sir Walter Scott was home, he helped control the boys, but when he was at work, it was just me . . . and they're getting so strong.  Brother ran off several times--once without a coat when it was 29 degrees out.  Later that day, I couldn't keep Beowulf from smashing his face into the floor (blaming it on me as he did so), and he needed ice to reduce the swelling around his right eye.

I flipped into zombie mode for the rest of the day, just doing the bare minimum to keep everyone safe and fed.  

Time to call the psychiatrist again.

Good things happened, too . . .

. . . like making Lego versions of animals both real . . .

 . . . and imagined . . .

. . . Lola reading in her free time . . .

 . . . Nature Angel feeding two babies at once . . .

. . . finding and watching a free astronomy lesson and doing an experiment afterwards . . .

 

. . . Nature Angel continuing to make progress on her Medusa sketch--she is fiercely critical of the face and will probably make changes . . .

. . . playing letter-matching games with The Munchkin . . .

 . . . working on a science kit that arrived in the mail . . .

 . . . and a trip to the temple for Nature Angel and Ladybug--it was Ladybug's first time!

We had a good dance practice.  There's a show scheduled next week.

We did a little bit of yardwork.

We finished Farmer Boy, and we read Hiawatha illustrated by Susan Jeffers.  

We also finished Black Ships Before Troy and began The Wanderings of Odysseus, also by Rosemary Sutcliff.  After Black Ships, the kids are decidedly pro-Hector, anti-Paris, and anti-Achilles.  We all think Helen was a fool, and not one of us could really root for the Greeks or the Trojans.  In starting Wanderings, the younger kids have now heard about Odysseus and Polyphemus and "Nobody" for the first time.  They LOVED it!  There was so much whooping and hollering as I read that I could barely finish the chapter. :)

I finally found a dentist that I think is going to accept our family as patients.  (Our dental insurance changed after remaining constant for 8 years.)  I'm in constant pain now in my mouth from the abscess in my lower left jawbone that I was supposed to have surgery on months ago.  Between Christmas, getting Covid, and the insurance change, my surgery got lost.  I have a copy of the x-rays, so I hope it will be a simple matter to get approved and scheduled because I'm tired and low from the pain.

We're having a most excellent General Conference weekend.

I'm praying the spiritual uplift I'm feeling now will follow me into the week and help me be the mother my kids need me to be!