The Week the Chiefs Won

 It was a house divided here on Superbowl Sunday.  

There were our devoted Chiefs fans.

There was our devoted 49ers fan.

There were those of us who didn't care one way or another.

So it was the best of times and the worst of times almost constantly for the whole evening.

But there was popcorn.

So that was good.

The shooting at the parade (which we did not attend) was bad, though.

It's been a bit of work around here to process it.

We had a good, solid school day on Monday.  Nothing special.  Nothing awful.  I always appreciate a good non-descript day.

Lola helped cut potatoes for dinner.

Everyone was wired on Tuesday.  I don't know why!

However, it was a beautiful day, and I decided that rather than try to wrangle the younger 6 into schoolwork that they were clearly incapable of, we went to the park.

A few kids took kites.

It was beautiful and breezy and just warm enough.

We stayed until people needed to eat.

I was going to do school after lunch, but then Brother boiled over, and we couldn't get him to calm down (I almost wrote "simmer down," in keeping with the cooking metaphor, but decided against it).  The stress of living in a constant state of mental and emotional terror broke me in the afternoon.

Fortunately, my FSP was available, and she talked me through it.

She even gave me a new tool for my toolbox that I wrote on the kitchen whiteboard so that I'll remember to use it.

The kids did do math.

It's so great doing math on the devices.  I can say, "Do math!" and they do it (mostly).

I also always manage to fit some sort of reading aloud into the days, too.  I read Carry On, Mr. Bowditch during one of the meals.

I loved, loved watching Nature Angel help Little Princess with a difficult algebra concept.

Most of the kids headed off to church activities, so it was just Lola, Baymax, and me in the evening.  They opted to watch The Lion King 2, and I did a few chores, then spent a long time getting ready for bed.

On Wednesday we attended the funeral of one of our beloved church grandparents.  It didn't take the whole day up, but somehow we never got organized enough after we were home to do anything more than math.

But these "no school" notes are not at all about the high schoolers.  We do history together right after breakfast; they've been working on their research papers every day; they have also been keeping up with all of their other independent work as well.  

They're rock stars!

We had a show on Thursday that went just fine.  The residents were delightful, singing along to many of the songs, and giving the kids sweet compliments afterward.

My cutie patootie bumblebees waiting for their turn to dance

Also, Mister Man finished Math 6!

And in the late afternoon, we managed to have our family Valentine's Day treasure hunt and valentine exchange.

As always, I wondered if the work to continue this tradition was worth it.

As always, it was.

Friday was a great school day . . . 

The teens organized their research notecards into categories.  Their assignment this week is to write their opening paragraph and continue any research as needed.

Lola carries that purple nature book everywhere.  She reads it, draws pictures from it, takes notes from it.  It is a treasure!

. . .  until I called Beowulf out for lying to me about a quick chore I assigned him.

Then all hell broke loose.

(Actually, not all of it broke loose.  The rest of the kids actually completed their art activity and occupied themselves beautifully while I tried to keep Beowulf from tearing more sheetrock out of the walls than he already has.)

I turned on a shark documentary on Disney+ when it was all over, and tried to reorganize my brain.

It stayed really unorganized, and it was only because of advanced menu-planning and keeping prepped food on hand that everyone got to have dinner.

Saturday wasn't a school day, but I finally had enough cash saved up to buy the rest of the bookshelves I needed in our evolving home library.  Brother, Beowulf, and Baymax each spent some time helping me put them together and install L-brackets for safety.

I still have some work to do, and some boxes to unpack, so I'm not ready to take pictures yet.

But I'm so excited!!!!!!

The oldest two got to attend a church dance, and they said it was really good.  It makes me so happy when they get to spend happy time with friends.

Sugar Bear and The Munchkin gave us their colds.  We're not that sick--just kind of blah and runny-nosed.

I sincerely hope that I feel less blah on Monday morning.