The Winding Down Begins

 All is well.

I'm taking my meds and getting exercise.

The kids are doing mostly well--some issues, but nothing startling.

I just feel . . . flat.

It's hard to do the things that need to be done.

Things that usually give me joy.

Eh.  It will probably pass.

The teens and I took the semester exam for The Mystery of History vol. 4.  As usual, we laughed until we cried as we tried to remember what we learned (me for the second time, and I have the answer key!).  At one point the answer was George Müller, and I unconsciously echoed the teacher in Ferris Bueller (the one who says, "Bueller?  Bueller?  Bueller?" saying in a deep and nasal voice, "Müller?" and my girls almost fell off their chairs laughing.

Honestly, I can't give any of us a very good grade on remembering facts, but I do know from conversing with the girls that I can give them honors in discussing intelligently what we've learned from history and how it affects us today.

We've already dived into the semester 2 material.

But, oh!

Our lesson on Monday was about the movement for women's suffrage, and we did some calculating.  We figured out that their great-grandmothers were part of the first generation of women born into women's suffrage in the U.S.  That means they are only the 4th generation of women born into it!  

It made me cry to think of how hard women worked for this right that I so frequently take for granted.

Nature Angel turned 18 recently.  In light of our lesson, she registered to vote that very day.

She came out onto the porch to ask me some questions about the registration website, and she stayed to fill out the forms and hit "submit."

History is just so good for us all to know.

Lola finished Math 3 for the second time, but this time she finished it with much more understanding than she did the first time around. 

I told her she's off the hook for formal math until August, but then I added that she'd be getting a workbook with math facts practice.

She was not happy.

But I'm serious about the practice between now and August.

She hasn't been happy a lot this week.  She's not as dangerous as her brothers were at this age, but she managed to tear her bedroom door off its hinges when she got mad.  She's so tiny!  She's 10, and she is barely big enough to wear size 7/8 clothing.  

But she's tough!

I'm not sure what to do about it.  It could just be surging pre-adolescent hormones, but she's my 8th girl, and I think it's more than that.

Beowulf and Brother finished their handwriting books.  I don't have pictures of them.  They didn't stick around enough as I checked their final assignments for me to get pictures in the moment, and I never followed through.  

I've got new books in my Rainbow Resource cart, waiting for me to have a full order before I finalize everything.

The kids and I are happily reading Our Only May Amelia (such a good book!) and The Black Arrow.  We're having a harder time getting through The Black Arrow because it's bedtime reading, and we're having lots of evening interruptions, but we're flying through May Amelia's story.  It's had some hard issues to talk about--suicide, murder, etc.--and I will admit to being a little bit shocked to find these topics covered the way they are in this children's book, but the story is gripping, and we're having good talks.

I'm currently wondering how to handle our ongoing history reading.  Should we call it here, in 1899, for this school year, and pick up with 20th-21st century history in August?  Or should I just keep on reading historical fiction through the summer?

I'll probably just keep reading, because that's what I do.

I read aloud to my kids. :)

We finished reading about Michael Faraday in The Story of Science, and we finished the first chapter about early life on earth in our The Golden Book of Natural History.  

We're still reading on.

I did pick up our Rod and Staff grade 3 grammar, and I did the first lesson with the kids--a lesson on alphabetizing.  I printed the exercises on sticky notes and put them on the whiteboard in our dining room.  They had a blast putting the words in order and coming up with times they could use the skill of alphabetizing to their advantage.

My favorite?

"Our Pokemon encyclopedias are in alphabetical order!"

Baymax has tried twice to get us to make some dandelion jelly.

That's him, showing me his bucket half full.

He washed the dandelions and then forgot them outside overnight.

When we woke up, they were all shriveled, and he was so disappointed.

I've got to put dandelion jelly at the top of my list for the week to come!

Our final community performance for the 2024-25 school year happened on Thursday.  We were performing at a facility entirely new to us, and we thought our mom in charge of scheduling had adequately prepared the activity director for us.

If she had, that activity director didn't process all she was told!!

She was totally overwhelmed by our busy presence, and she got very upset with us.

No clogging shoes!

Stay out of the way!

You're too loud!

No one can be barefoot!

Pick up your shoes off the floor!

Sign in!

Be quiet!

And so on and so forth.

It was hard to even want to be there, but we saw a few of the residents, and our hearts were softened.  We decided to do our best this one time and never come back to a place where we were so clearly unwanted.

This photo was taken by one of our other moms.  Every kid in the air at once!
(Little Princess was trying to do the heel click with those heels on her regular dance shoes instead of her low-heeled clogging shoes.  She said she nearly rolled her ankle three times during that one dance!  I'm sure that's why she's not quite in sync with the others this time.)

It was strange to have such a silent show (clogging shoes make such a difference), but the residents absolutely loved the kids.  They clapped and cheered and laughed and smiled.  We're not a professional dance group--we're really just a bunch of moms and kids doing our best to serve the community--but because our kids are modest and kind and friendly, these elderly folks just love us.

When all was done, the formerly unwelcoming activity director apologized for how she'd acted and told us she loved the show.  She asked us to come back and also asked permission to share our info with other facilities in the area who might not already know us.

One of the residents took Little Princess by the hand and said, "Thank you so much!  We do the same thing all of the time here, and you were something different and fun!"

One elderly gentleman said, "The world needs more people like you!"

*sigh*

How could we not come back?

We did our Couch to 5k runs twice this week, being rained out of our third run with severe thunderstorm warnings.

We had some quiet indoor time.

Nature Angel is helping Ladybug with a crochet project.

Everyone is happy on library day.

  Nature Angel went to homeschool prom on Saturday night!

Ready to go!

KCHC class of 2025!

She had a date all set up, but between asking the boy out and the actual prom taking place, he met another girl, and he fell for her.  He was ready to keep his commitment with Nature Angel because they'd been going as friends from the start, but she was uncomfortable going on a date with another girl's boyfriend.

So she took a girlfriend with her, and though there weren't too many boys without dates at the prom, there were several girls without dates, and they all found each other and had a blast dancing and talking all night.

The friend she took goes to public school, and she said that prom was so much more fun than a school prom!

Hooray for homeschool. :)

We've spent the weekend immersed in General Conference.  

It's been the best series of conference sessions I can remember.  Every message has been filled with love and encouragement, and I feel a strong desire to serve the Lord with greater commitment.

My goal:  Keep that feeling alive through action!

Maybe it will help kick the "flat" away.