Two Deaths, One Funeral

 That's what has filled our days for the past couple of weeks.

Super Star was pregnant; we were all so excited.

Then her numbers went down, and she had several days of waiting and wondering and worrying before an ultrasound confirmed that there was no heartbeat.

I am far too familiar with this kind of loss, and my heart broke for my daughter and son-in-law.  Even as I supported her to the best of my ability, I felt gut-punched--as if I were reliving my own pregnancy losses of the not-actually-that-far-distant past. 

She is recovering well, and she and Mr. E are adopting a beautiful puppy to fill their hearts and hands while they wait for medical clearance to try again and then face the uncertainty of future pregnancies.

(Adopting a puppy has been on their wish list for a year now.  The timing of this puppy being born and available now is a serendipitous blessing!)

That was one death.

The other was Sir Walter Scott's mom.

We are grateful to have her body and mind at peace now.  We believe in eternal families and that she is reunited with all of the loved ones who left for heaven before.

But it is a loss.

On the night of her death, we made a cake and listened to Sir Walter Scott share memories of his mom.

Then we got busy with a rapidly organized and executed trip to Utah for the funeral.

"Big" sister and "Little" brother

I'm not sure who took this picture, but off to the left Nature Angel is playing a hilarious game with cousin J.  It was simply flinging discs from one side to the other, and the winner was the one who got his/her side empty first. 

Cousin swim at the hotel!

Going through Grammie's things, we found some old, old glasses.  
The kids thought it was hilarious that I tried them on.

Random van picture

We arrived in Utah too early to check in to our rental house, so we stopped at the Bean Natural Science Museum at BYU to kill time.  It ended up being a really fun field trip!  They had a wonderful variety of scavenger hunts that engaged kids and adults.  I absolutely delighted in watching my young adults and teens run all over the museum trying to solve clues and laughing together.

Tiny snake

I guess she didn't want her picture taken?

Beowulf had a rough time at first--hence the crumpled scavenger hunt.  
But we talked and rested our way back to baseline, and he was pretty proud of his accomplishment.

Baymax and his camera

Ladybug always ends up at the birds!  Sometimes I think that phase of bird-loving has passed, but something always triggers it again.

It makes me happy to have a science field trip bang in the middle of our family funeral trip.

Each grandchild was allowed to walk through Grammie's house and choose something to remember her by.  Mister Man chose The Game of Life.  The kids have been playing it non-stop ever since.

Our cousins have the best games!!!

I love those goggles!

Tired and chilling at the rental house

Super Star couldn't go with us on the trip because of her health condition, and we missed her very much.  Here are 5 of the 6 "big girls" in our family enjoying sister time together.

First cousins once removed at the funeral luncheon. 
Baby W isn't as sure as Baymax is that spending time together is a good idea. :)

I love my role as baby-whisperer.
Baby H (in my arms) and Baby W (above with Baymax) are twins.

Prior to leaving for Utah, we were continuing in our school groove--reading, painting with watercolors, listening to classical music, studying art history, narrating, doing copywork, and completing math lessons.

Just before we left, Brother finished Math 7!

I forgot to mention a couple of weeks ago, that in Morning Meeting, we finished The Jesus Storybook Bible and returned to our reading of this series . . .

 . . . where we left off.   We actually finished this volume and are now well-established in volume 6.

The teens and I started To Kill a Mockingbird and carried on with lessons from The Mystery of History vol. 4.  They maintained personal study sessions of their individual courses.

We had a show on Thursday at a community center that went very well.  The most touching moment came when the kids sang God Bless the USA, and three veterans stood up at the back of the room and saluted the kids.  

As always, the kids walked around after the show, shaking hands with our audience and thanking them for their attendance.  Both elderly and kids benefit greatly from these small interactions.

We arrived home in the wee hours of Tuesday morning.  We slept late and recovered that day before diving back into school routines on Wednesday.  I kept everything simple--no written narrations, and no geography or art appreciation lessons--just poetry, some music, and our usual read-alouds.

Tom Sawyer is NOT a good bedtime read-aloud! :)

Tom's adventures are so delightful and maddening that the kids are more worked up after I read than they are before, but there's no way we're stopping our reading of this book before it's finished!

Beowulf needs a med adjustment.  He ran off this week, mad at me for sending him outside after he couldn't control his body (constant wrestling and rough-housing) in the house.  He also had a bad night at the rental house on our trip--a really bad night.  Our caseworker arrived just as the boys disappeared (Brother left to keep Beowulf company); he even helped us search for them.  Then he stayed with us while we called the police and all through the waiting for them to be found.  Both he and the police officers reminded the boys that leaving the property without telling us is not allowed, and I am very grateful for these adults to be part of our village.

We had a successful dance rehearsal on Thursday, and later that night all 6 of my kids in the church youth program participated in a big camp fundraiser committee meeting.  They came out of the meeting with assignments, and I think this might be a very successful event.

The ground is finally clear enough for us to take hikes again (though there's dicey weather in the forecast!).

The trail was actually still too muddy, but we detoured off to a grassy area and then a rocky area, so we still had an adventure.

Taking pictures of beautiful rocks

Lola found this treasure.  We don't know what it is yet--definitely some sort of fruit/seed--but it's now part of our nature collection on the dining room table.

Did I ever record that Little Princess attended JOA a couple of weeks ago?

Maybe.

Anyway, she did.  It ended up being a very good experience for her.  They had lots of leadership training, and she said that everyone was friendly and inclusive during downtime.  She came home with stories full of learning and laughter.

For myself, I'm reading some books about narrations and notebooks a la Charlotte Mason.  They've got me thinking about the narrations we do and how to improve them (more of them for everyone and less feedback for the younger ones).  As I've observed my children, I've realized just how much personal notebooking they all do.  I have a couple of devoted journal-writers.  Mister Man is making his own Pokemon encyclopedia.  Many of them keep notebooks full of drawings.  And a couple of them love their stencil sets and are constantly using them to draw highway junctions, cars, and other items of personal interest.

Their personal notebooks are not filled with the flora and fauna of the "ideal" Charlotte Mason notebook, but they are filled with what is important to my children at this time.

That makes me happy.