Injuries!

Little Princess sprained her other ankle, too.

 She was just walking to her seat at the dining room table to do some math when she lost her balance on the boot and tried to catch herself by putting out her healthy foot.  

It rolled.

It popped.

It hurt and bruised.

When we took her back to the orthopedic office for her 2-week follow-up for the first sprain, they confirmed the second one.  

It's not as severe, but they offered her another boot because with neither ankle working correctly, she needs support.

She refused.

With the doc's approval, she's wearing a simple drugstore brace that has hard support.

She limps all over the place, but when she doesn't think I'm looking, I see the strain of pain in her face.

I am having to remind her often to rest with her feet up.

That injury took place on Tuesday afternoon.

On Friday evening, Lola came screaming into the house, clutching her face, blood seeping between her fingers.

I cut butterfly bandages out of regular Bandaids to hold the wound together.

Mister Man accidentally shot her in the face with one of Baymax's arrows.

As with most accidents, he did not follow the safety rules that I laid out, reviewed, and practiced with the kids.

He says he told her to move.

She says she should have moved.

I say he shouldn't have taken the shot.

But now we have a real live illustration of how serious it can be when kids fail to follow the safety rules!!!!

Without going into detail, had the cut been on any other part of her body, I would not have taken her to the doctor.  

But it is on her face.

I washed it, applied pressure and ice, butterfly bandaged the wound, and tried to find an urgent care center that would take us on Friday evening.

None would.  They were either running at capacity or refused to work on a child or refused to handle facial stitches.

So we spent 4 hours at the ER only to be sent home with neither stitches nor glue because as the doc said, "You did a really good job with those butterfly bandages."

🤦

I'm still glad I went because if I hadn't gone, the wound would have pulled apart, and then I'd have appeared neglectful.

Also, if you wait more than a few hours to get stitches, it's usually too late to get them.

(Ask me how I know that!)

So I had to get the cut examined right away, and the ER was the only place that would do that.

And she got a Tdap update . . . so that's good.

Other than taking care of injuries, we read good books and excerpts from good books.

The teens and I are almost done with The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.  We also read  "Essay 51" from The Federalist Papers, a dozen or so of the letters between John and Abigail Adams, and Patrick Henry's "Give me liberty or give me death" speech to the Virginia Convention.

We're feeling exceedingly in awe of our Founding Fathers right now, and I'm organizing next year's American Government/Constitution class for us. 

 And Little Princess finished General Science!

Poor exhausted girl--I took this picture while she was hurting.

Nature Angel finished her several-weeks-long project of making natural pigments and then making an actual painting with them.

Her test page--figuring out what the paints would look like on paper

And then the finished painting.
Every color on the page was harvested and processed from our own yard by Nature Angel.

She also finished a several-months-long project in acrylic.

It's an illustration of a concept from the Taylor Swift song Seven.  (Yes, she's a Swiftie!)

I love the sweetness, the light, the details (the open book on the bank). . . just all of it.

And can you find the pirate ship in the clouds?!?

She's taken "school assignments" to her heart and made them part of her development.

Have I mentioned before how much I love watching my kids become themselves?

And, speaking of becoming herself, Little Princess was promoted to Chief Master Sergeant this week. This is the highest cadet NCO rank in CAP.  She has to complete two "ghost promotions" on the way to becoming an officer, but she's got it in her. :)

The younger kids and I finished The Story of Chemistry.  They said they're interested in learning more, so I checked the shelves for a few books.  This week we read this:

 

 

We also started this:

Interestingly, Baymax has his heels dug in over the true elements being earth, air, fire, and water.  When I thought he was just confused, I explained the old beliefs versus the modern scientific definition.

He's not confused.  

He's just stubborn.

I'm not arguing with him; time will show us whether he embraces science or becomes a medieval alchemist. 🤣🤣🤣

We're still reading The Horse and His Boy, Alice in Wonderland, A Child's Garden of Verses, D'Aulaire's Greek Myths, and The Story of the World vol. 1.

The kids are also still working on their current math programs--all of them at a level that is stretching them.

And it's mulberry season.  They're picking them to eat straight from the tree, bring to me for jam-making, or make "juice" on their own.

Church activities this week included 

*learning how to change a tire (tween boys)

*learning how to respect and fold the US flag (Baymax)

*minute to win it games (Lola)

*Mario Kart (Ladybug--she's never played it before, so it was a learning experience!)

*Celebrating the graduating seniors (Nature Angel)

Poor Little Princess was stuck at home with me because her new sprain was so new.  However, we watched a movie together, and I think we both enjoyed the experience.

We have two more weeks until the summer camp experiences begin!