A Week, Briefly (Jan. 30, 2023)

This was a hard week.

Brother was verbally difficult--challenging any and all parenting decisions, talking back, making threats, etc.

Beowulf had a couple of times when he needed to be restrained.

Toilets clogged almost every time someone used them.

I didn't have meal plans properly in place.

Theo bit The Duke when The Duke ran away from my sight and ignored my calls to come back when I had my hands full of 3 other small people.  He was teasing the dog, and I didn't get to him in time.

Alongside a number of false accusations (I did not argue with her.  She was upset and scared and had every right to be.), his mom declared me unfit to watch her children and pulled them from my care within the hour.  

We need to decide what to do about Theo.

Honestly, 8 babies full-time is too much for us.

We've been debating and praying about what to do about too many babies, and if I look at it without the hurt and sorrow of the accident and accusations, it is a blessing that we're down to 6 full-time babies.  

But the hurt and sorrow are real.

And we're struggling with grief, even as we're clearing out baby gear and rejoicing in the fact that we have some room to breathe.

This week, our morning tables included:

     Magnet toys

     Geoboards--a total fail for entertaining the young ones!

     Stuffed animals and some baby doll accessories

     Wooden toys

     Calico Critters

The morning tables are good for my kids, too.  As long as I can keep them on track to get their morning work done, they have a lot of fun playing.  For the moment, the morning tables are a better incentive than breakfast for getting work done.

We finished these books:

This was a great read for my crew.  They were deeply affected by the injustice done to Joan, and I'm hoping to steer some of their outrage into doing good for those who are unjustly treated today.

The whole middle of the book is a strange departure from any plot whatsoever to a very long description of Dutch history and culture.  The actual story was pretty fun, and my kids were quite satisfied with how it all ended.

We started The Dark Frigate--Newbery award winner for 1924--as our new bedtime read-aloud.  

And we're going to read about William the Conqueror at lunchtime.

I froze our darling cabbage seedlings when I set them outside to enjoy an afternoon of reasonable sunshine and then forgot about them in the chaos of The Duke's injury.  It was a hard freeze that night, and I found them out on the deck the next morning, perfectly frozen.

The plan was to start the tomato seedlings and reset the cabbage seeds this week, but they got lost in the shuffle, so they're on the schedule for first thing this coming week.

We've shifted from reading about Mary's garden to reading about insects, following the WEH rotation, but the kids like Mary's garden so much, that they asked me to keep reading about her.

Okay!

Pixie left for and has now safely arrived in Uganda after an amazing series of flights. 

All of her luggage made it safely, too.

With her fellow volunteer in the Brussels, Belgium airport

She loved church this Sunday.  She says she can't wait to go back!

Helping to make lunch

At a Ugandan dance cultural event during which her upcoming birthday was honored, she got to dance with the dancers!

She's in seventh heaven over all of the new experiences!

AND . . .

and we got to take our Belle to the temple to receive her endowment!

(It's February 5th, and I feel like I've lived through a year's worth of events already!)

And now some photos of daily life:

Tracing an outline for watercoloring

Working on their squirrel watercolors

He's measuring the length of our living room in order to compare it to the length of a Pokemon character.  This is self-motivated math.

It got so cold this week!  The creek froze, and we stopped to play on it on 3 different days.

This is what creek ice looks like upside down.

The kids told me this is an ice city made of upside-down creek ice.

Ice close-up

Sugar Bear found the only patch of snow left in our yard.

He's practicing his climbing skills.

After our first day of reading from the insect stories, we did an Art for Kids Hub lesson.  The kids had fun.

On one of our cold morning walks, Baymax ran ahead of us to each of our stopping places, and then just lay on the ground.

Why????

More frozen creek play and exploration

Nature Angel found an art history/appreciation book and a book of poetry that have her enthralled.

While everyone else was gone, I watched 6 of the babies alone.  I got out playdough to keep them focused and safe before naps.

I had an outing day planned for Friday because the forecast was for warmer temperatures, but it was super cold again!  Everyone was tired of being cold, so we had a dance party for half an our or so and called it good exercise.

I challenged the kids to make Lego gardens, and I put on a classical music playlist for peace.

The older girls had a painting activity at church.  Someone caught Ladybug on the left.

The little girls played games.

Little Princess had a safety event at CAP.

The little boys did knot-tying.

And the older boys worked on family history activities.

During the week, we watched two movies that I was able to count for school:  Secretariat and Ben-Hur.

We're still working on The Children's Book of Virtues.

I just realized that it's going to be Valentine's Day in less than 2 weeks . . . 😟