A Week, Briefly (3/29/21)

The kids have spent upwards of 30 hours down at our creek this week.  They've built dams, dug holes, made mud pies, collected rocks, waded, floated Lego boats and people, floated a "kayak" (aka a broken toy car), and have come home for meals covered in mud.

When they're not at the creek, they're in the apple tree or on one of our fallen trees that we haven't cleared because they're the best jungle gyms ever.

Cries of, "Meet me in the apple tree!"

"I'll be at the creek!"

"Follow me to the down tree!" ring from our yard from mid-morning to sunset.

No matter how I try, we never have dinner before 7:00 pm, and even then the kids complain about having to come indoors.

But they are tired and hungry, and they eat well, curl up in their jammies for evening reading, and listen with baited breath during the next emotional chapter of The House of Sixty Fathers.

Prior to their mid-morning release, we have Morning Meeting and Individual School, therapies, chores, and more read-alouds during meals.

 

I do sometimes lose track of the joy of this spring season--caught up in dishes, meal prep, negative behaviors, medical appointments, and errands--but when I stop to really look . . .

it's an idyllic time for my children.

I have no pictures of their outdoor play because I leave them to it--a sort of benign neglect (to quote my mom)--keeping my attention on running the house in such a way that they both work hard and revel in their free time.

Inspired by Nature Angel, Little Princess is doing 2 math lessons a day so she can finish her book!

When I flipped through the pages of Baymax's math book to find an assigned project, he recognized the Taj Mahal from our India studies last month.  We skipped the assigned project and did this one instead.

And we're still doing home improvement projects.

They like power tools the best, and the sander is a favorite.

The older girls had two social opportunities this week--one official church activity during which they watched the youth music festival, and an informal gathering with friends to watch a movie and eat snacks and visit.

In the car after the church activity

Waiting for Belle before the movie night

Some of our bird studies from a year ago are still with us, and we all take turns watching and listening to and identifying birds in our yard.  We seem to have several nesting pairs of cardinals, blue jays, mourning doves, robins, black-capped chickadees and phoebes very near by.  We're hearing others, but these are the ones we are best at identifying.

In addition, the magnolia trees are in bloom, and even though we don't have one, Baymax, Little Princess and I counted 21 on our way to the chiropractor.

The kids are noticing new beauties every day, and they love to find me and tell me about them.

Little Princess is deep in her self-directed study of outer space and NASA.  She voluntarily reads and narrates to me every day, several times a day.  It is pure joy to watch her find her passion.

Beowulf is doing much better off meds than on, but he's now complaining of stomach pain every day.  We've ruled out appendicitis, and we're doing our best to provide comfort, but I'm starting to be a bit worried.

Next week may include an extra doctor appointment.

Happy Easter to all!