A Week on Either Side of Easter

I'm not getting done what I wish I were.

I am having to be satisfied with what I am getting done.

That is a challenge.

But I'm determined to rise to it.

The teens and I finished The Mystery of History vol 3!!

And we're making lovely progress through The Scarlet Letter.  I've found a quote that I want to use as a writing prompt when we're ready to wrap up our reading and discussion.  Little Princess asked if we can do another Shakespeare play to take the place of history in our morning studies together.

Ummmmmmm, that would be yes!

Nature Angel finished her health text.

The younger kids and I are reading 4 books for school during the day:

*Story of the World vol 1

*Archimedes and the Door of Science

*The Bible Smuggler

*The Lilac Fairy Book

We're doing well with these books.  I have the kids do some verbal narration after at least two of the books each day, and for Archimedes and The Bible Smuggler, they will write history/biography narration pages when we finish them.

We're making our way slowly through The Ark as a bedtime read-aloud.  It's quite good, and it's only the time of year, with later evenings out playing and more activities, that is keeping us at our current slow pace.

In Morning Meeting, we've completed the first volume of our 10-volume Bible Storybook collection.  We are happily following the story of the rise of the Israelite nation in volume 2 right now.  I also anticipate completing our current Book of Mormon family read-aloud in the next 3 weeks, so I am looking into what form our continued Book of Mormon study will take.  As usual, we will also continue to follow the Come, Follow Me curriculum provided by our church.

The weather is perfect these days for lots of outdoor play, but the kids still need to shake off the trappings of winter.  They gravitate toward reading, drawing, and game-playing.  I have no complaints about these activities!  But their bodies are feeling the pull and energy of spring, and they need to use that energy out-of-doors . . . because I like to be as sane as possible. :)

Baymax practiced climbing this tree until his hands and wrists were bloody from scratches caused by falling.  It's this and archery that motivate him to practice something hard through the hard to mastery.

I'm forever kicking them outside, and when they get there, they play basketball, skate, bike, draw with chalk, climb trees, explore the creek, read in the deck swing (if they're going to read, they might as well get some vitamin D), pet the cats, play catch with a baseball and mitts, and pick spring flowers all over the yard.

Dandelions!  Dandelions are spring flowers!

We finally replaced the dandelions they picked that I let go bad in the fridge.  We now have 3 lovely pints of dandelion jelly added to our pantry shelf, and I'm convinced we could get another 3-6 pints easily if the kids would choose to help me.

I've transplanted many lettuce, spinach, and cabbage seedlings into the garden.  The lettuces and radishes I direct-sowed into the wading-pool-turned-garden are coming up, and I've done a couple of rounds of thinning with them.

The bare-root strawberry plants I ordered in February finally arrived this weekend, and I will be turning school time into planting time on Monday morning . . . but we should be able to do school reading once we're all tired from digging and planting and mulching.

Easter was fun.  We did baskets on Saturday because half of the family had to be at choir practice at 9:00 am on Sunday morning.

This is where the kids wait before they are allowed to stampede to their baskets.
It's so hard to believe it was Nature Angel's last Easter basket year.  She'll be 18 before next Easter!

Little Princess had a busy two weeks with CAP.  First, she was promoted to Senior Master Sergeant!

 Then she not only was selected to help present awards and do the MIA/POW honor presentation at the annual awards banquet, but she received 4 awards!!

Sir Walter Scott and I have repeatedly discussed our gratitude for this program and what is has done and is doing for our Little Princess.  She's found her people, and she's growing so beautifully.

Re: My Earlier Comment on Kicking the Kids Outside as Much as Possible

I don't kick them out too much on library day.  :)

Library day or not, this boy prefers almost anything to reading.  Though I will say, that might be changing because I've caught him nose-deep in a book three times since this picture was taken a week or so ago.

The teens love using the large dry erase board in the dining room for working out long algebra problems.

The problem is hard to see, but it takes up a lot of space. :)

Game-playing

Brother whipped through Math 4 (a review level) and has whipped through Math 5 as well.  I think he told me he's going to finish that this week.  Good thing I already have Math 6 ready to go for him.

(PS I promised it was too hard to see that I captured this picture right when he made a mistake, but it isn't too hard to see, so pretend it's a moment when he got the right answer.  He gets those more often, anyway!)

Sir Walter Scott butchered his first chicken, and a few of the kids were curious enough to watch part of the process.

Only 5 more chickens to butcher and the whole coop to clean out thoroughly before we can get some new chicks!

As I am praying and pondering what to do with/for my family right now, I've received a clear prompting to create positive family memories together.  Brother's meds are working.  We don't have to live in survival mode every day, but we still feel like survival mode.  We need some healing, joyful times to calm our hearts and minds.  

The easiest way for me to do that is to light a fire and provide marshmallows.

There's just something about a fire and marshmallows that make my kids laugh and talk.  The teens were hilarious.  The kids were happy.  The food was satisfying.  

We laughed.

A lot.

We stayed out until an hour past bedtime--with the boys playing catch in the dark.  Everyone went to bed smelling of campfire, and we all slept deeply.

With some planning, some determination, some creativity, and some luck, there will be more joyful family experience pictures on this blog in the coming weeks.