A Week , Briefly (Feb 20, 2023)

Well, I can say for sure that I am tired of being sick and useless.

Sick with a stomach bug for part of last week and the weekend, followed by profound pain from hurting my neck (did I damage it when vomiting?!?!?!) and daily chiropractic visits to undo the damage, followed by a cold with a dreadful sore throat that I'm still dealing with today.

I am ready to be healthy and able-bodied!

I'm pretty sure Sir Walter Scott and the older girls are ready for me to be healthy and able-bodied, too!!!

*We had Morning Meetings every day.

*We read every day.

*The kids had a lot of free time to read and write and draw on their own.

*Little Princess turned in her essay on Irena Sendler--I got chills and cried a little as I read about her work.

*Little Princess started research for another essay on the Wright brothers.

*Our internet went down for a full day, and the teens commented, "I didn't realize how dependent I am on working wi-fi."

*We watched several movies--Disney's Pinocchio (2022 version) is the one I feel that I can count as school. :)

*The teens and I had mini-Symposium 4 out of 5 days.

*We finished season 3 of The Chosen!  A lot of us cried a lot.

*Nature Angel is determined to finish her Saxon Algebra 1 book by the end of the month, and she's been working hard on math every single day!

*Nature Angel and Little Princess took over evening meals and bedtime rituals many nights while I was out of commission.

*I continued to set out toddler table activities each morning, and Calico Critters are consistently a good choice.  Baby dolls and costumes are a close second.  Wooden manipulatives, building blocks, and puzzles require lots of older kid inspiration to keep the toddlers focused; otherwise, they default to throwing the wooden toys around the room.

Monday

I was an absolute wreck with pain.  The only picture I took was of this floor-to-ceiling Mag structure

I honestly can't remember any details of the day.

Tuesday

I felt slightly improved for a few hours in the morning, so I had fun with the kids.

I was so tickled to find that the kids had drawn roads with chalk all over the back patio and had created bus stops in a couple of locations.  Too clever!!

And the sun came out for a delightful walk!

The Munchkin decided he was too tired to walk, and this is how Nature Angel hauled him along!

After school with the older girls, I hauled the younger ones outside to do some math.  We worked with 50 pebbles creating "sets of" to practice multiplication and then dividing into groups.

Older kids were asked to create their own multiplication and division problems in their spare time while the younger ones just worked on the basic 4 questions I asked.

I spent the afternoon incapacitated by the work the chiropractor did on my neck, barely able to be present, and eventually being sent to bed by the teen girls.  But then I heard crying and hollering, so I hobbled out to the living room to find that Belle had received her mission call!!!!!

We did not stand on ceremony.  She opened it immediately to read it alone and then ran to share it with whoever was home at the moment.  The rest of the family heard the news in bits and pieces, and I am officially free to share it as I please.

She's been called to the Trinidad, Port of Spain mission!

It comprises Trinidad and Tobago, the ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao), Guyana, and Suriname.

She's been officially called to teach in Spanish, and that is what she'll study at the Missionary Training Center, but in her letters from the actual mission leaders, she's been informed that she will also learn Papiamentu which is a creole language (Spanish, Portugues, Dutch blend) spoken in the ABC islands.

She starts home missionary training on April 24th, reports to the MTC on May 10th, and departs for Curaçao on June 6th.  (At least we think it's Curaçao because the mission office is there--not sure why it's there instead of Port of Spain, but that doesn't matter, really.)

33 years ago, Sir Walter Scott was called to the Venezuela, Caracas mission, and he served in Curaçao for 4 months.

To say he's delighted is an understatement, but he's pretty chill on the outside. :)

Belle is thrilled beyond words, and we are busily preparing and applying for the proper travel documents as well as shopping for her needed (and exceedingly minimal) wardrobe.

Incidentally, Pixie comes home from Uganda on May 7, so the sisters will overlap at home for about 2 days--just enough time to give hugs, chat a bit, and go their separate ways.

Wednesday

Improvement!!  I could move almost freely, and we braved the rain on our morning walk.

We kept asking Stretch if he wanted to get out so that Sugar Bear wasn't squishing him, but in spite of the face he wore the whole time, he said he wanted to stay where he was. 

That's a little plastic snake that was the favorite toy of the day.

Eventually, the rain passed, and as I was sore (but not incapacitated) by more chiropractic work, I sent the kids outside to make the most of the afternoon.  Somehow kites came out!

Our show on Thursday was canceled due to an outbreak of covid in the nursing home in which we were supposed to perform, but there was a rehearsal in the afternoon.

After my early morning chiropractic appointment (I'm feeling so much better!), we went to the library in the morning--taking all 14 kids.

I stayed home with the youngest 3 kids while everyone else headed to the church for a youth cake-decorating night.

Each of my kids was on a different team and I really wish I had pictures of all of the cakes they helped decorate, but I only have a picture of one--Little Princess's team cake.

That's Jonah being swallowed by the whale.

By Friday morning, I had a headache and sore throat, but I wasn't sure if it was an illness or strange aches related to my neck injury.  I wasn't functioning very well, but we limped through the day until I was absolutely sure that I was sick again.

Poor Mister Man was sick, too.

Lola, Nature Angel, and Beowulf joined us.

Then Belle caught the stomach bug several of us had had the previous week--she had it bad!

Lola has given up trying to find matching shoes at any given time.  
And the rest of us have given up trying to help her.  She's simply too random in her movements.

Oooh!  And a special note, Cleo (above) came home on Monday after disappearing last Friday.  She seems perfectly unaffected by her absence, but the rest of us were somewhat traumatized.  I think the kittens are officially old enough in March to be fixed and chipped and licensed, and that's on my list of important things to get done.

On Saturday, the healthy teens/tweens went to a religious freedom seminar and brunch sponsored by our church, and I haven't talked with them about it.  That will need to be the subject of our family dinner tonight!

Sir Walter Scott nearly ran his head off trying to meet everyone's needs whether healthy or sick. 

I'm going to see if he'll take a nap today!

Pixie has had dramatic adventures!

Rafting the Nile:

And visiting the equator:

She's been struggling more than the pictures tell.  She loves her students, her fellow teachers, her orphanage babies, and Uganda. 

But, the depression and anxiety that she thought would go away on this marvelous adventure (I'd have told her otherwise had she admitted it in advance) only grew worse, and she's been in the unenviable position of having to find appropriate mental health care in a third world country.  Fortunately, the program she's working for has a good relationship with International SOS, and she's had knowledgeable assistance.

I'm just sad that she thought she had to "fake it" (her words) in order to avoid meds and therapy . . . and I'm sad she thought she should avoid meds and therapy . . . especially as a member of our family!  We're so transparent about mental health issues, and I work so hard to stand against the stigma of it all.

I guess we haven't made as much progress as a society as I thought/hoped we had.

At any rate, we're surviving each day, and we're even having joy in moments.

I'm going to bed tonight with the optimistic thought that I'm going to wake up feeling healthy and strong and ready to take care of business around this house!