A Week, Briefly (Feb. 6, 2023)

 Between snow and illness, we had a kind of quiet week here. 

I thought I killed another batch of baby cabbage seedlings, but they hung in there!

I have no excuse for forgetting them.  It was a perfectly peaceful day, and I should have remembered to bring them inside before the sun went down.  The morning temperature was 29, and I was ready to cry for the loss. 

Now I'm all happy and hopeful for a real spring this year.  We've gone straight from winter to summer for the past couple of years.

And temperatures are swinging wildly.  Forecasts are changing almost as wildly.  I'm practically obsessive about checking the forecast every day, and I still didn't know we were getting snow until I woke up to see it outside the windows!

The teens and I finished the first unit (6 chapters) of The Landmark History of the American People.  I assigned them to write an informative essay--essentially a narration--about the 6 different types of colonists described.   They both missed the deadline, but I extended it after having a brief conversation with them about their time management versus unavoidable interruptions.

They finished their essays; both are excellent.

We finished this book:

We started The Children's Book of Heroes.

The kids were glued--utterly glued--to the story of Jackie Robinson.  By the end of the mini biography, most of us were near tears, and I could feel in the air around us that every one of us understood better how there can be greater strength in peace than in fighting.  

We talked about it a little bit--not enough to wreck the mood.

It was a reverent experience.

Another day, I read a story about a mother taking care of her child, and my kids looked at me doubtfully and said, "How is a mom a hero?"

*sigh*

We're still plowing through The Dark Frigate.  We all liked the chapter about the storm, and now we've reached some powerful foreshadowing of piracy to come, so I think we're starting to be invested in the characters and plot.

William the Conqueror has always been rather a villain to me--being a student of English literature and history.  Reading the Landmark biography with the kids is giving me a more balanced view . . . maybe.  

The kids like him so far--especially the fact that Normans are descended from Vikings (all of them devoted How to Train your Dragon fans).

Right now there are two series getting even my reluctant readers to read--Hank the Cowdog (Lola and Beowulf) and Keeper of the Lost Cities (Beowulf and Brother).  Ladybug, Mister Man, and Baymax are such ardent fans of the latter that at least half of their conversations are about the characters and adventures (the other half being about Pokemon).  The desire to participate in the conversations has inspired my reluctant ones to dive in, and now I find more small people than ever cuddled together or independently under blankets reading long fantasy novels.

Even though Baymax is perfectly capable of reading on his own, he and Ladybug have a joyful little connection when she reads aloud to him.  

Apparently I need to distribute my taking-pictures-of-reading-children more evenly!

They talk about the characters.

They pretend to be the characters.

They reenact the adventures.

They make up their own adventures based on the tools and magic in the books.

They draw pictures.

They narrate to me.

It's all education, and I'm not assigning one bit of it.

I'm just standing around being grateful for the process.

We set out to do a grand week-long neighborhood clean-up . . . and we completed 2 days of it.

Cold and snow and dance preparations prevented us on the other days of the week, but we still pulled in an awfully good haul.

And there's always time to do it this week or the next, too!

Speaking of dance . . . it's performance season again.  We spent all day on Wednesday organizing costumes, replacing outgrown or damaged pieces, preparing snacks ahead of time, and packing the diaper bag.

Then we woke up to 4 inches of wet snow and a notice that the school district in which the senior center is located was closed for the day.  

Therefore the senior center was closed, too.

Therefore . . . snow day!

The only picture I got--Ladybug filling a bin to make snow bricks for an igloo.  The igloo is actually still standing 3 days later, even though it reached 50+ for two of those days!

Being on baby duty, I never got outside to play with the kids, but I did have hot chocolate and popcorn ready for them when they came in.

Little Princess baked 3 loaves of wheat bread and 1 loaf of gluten-free bread.  We dove into hot bread and butter like ravening wolves.

Stretch was an eager helper.  Little Princess gave him some dough to play with, and he was so proud!

Gluten-free bread is too sticky to knead, so it gets blended and rises differently.

We ate every bite in a single day!

Nature Angel was starting to come down with whatever it is she has.  She parked herself on the couch with a new crochet pattern, beautiful gray yarn, and her favorite hook and worked until she ended up in bed . . . and I'm quite sure she even crocheted there, too. 

One day I sent the kids outside on a nature heart hunt . . . with a warm chocolate chip cookie for each person who found something.

It was so much easier than we thought it was going to be!!!

Another day I had them each draw and narrate about an inspiring story we'd read.  The choice of story was theirs as we'd read several.

And still another day, after we'd read about caterpillars and butterflies, we did the Lily and Thistle butterfly watercolor lesson.

Brother had a breakdown over trying and failing to help Beowulf cope with his frustrations.  Brother tore up his own work and ran off to his room.  However, he came out after a while and wanted to join us.  Here, he and Mister Man are working together to tape up his torn paper.

I accidentally caught the moment when the teacher told us this was going to be a really hard lesson after I'd told them it looked like it would be easy and fun.  The teacher was right!

Early in the week, when Sir Walter Scott was home, everyone got a turn to split wood.  

Lola is always in a tree.

Ummm, just noticed she is barefoot!  Maybe I'll ask Sir Walter Scott to send her in for shoes the next time she handles an axe!

We took morning walks 4 out of 5 days--the 5th day being the snow day when the kids played outside all morning.

It is So. Hard. to get out the door . . . and then the walks are So. Good!

The Munchkin was doing a nature counting scavenger hunt with Ladybug's help!

Clearing some brush from the tunnel so the water could flow more freely

This picture is to remind me how the kids "light leaped" their way through our walk.  Light leaping is something the characters in Keepers of the Lost Cities do.  Near the end, Beowulf found a big piece of broken ice that he claimed was his crystal.  Then he shattered it on the ground into a million gorgeous pieces, and we mourned the loss of his crystal before squaring our shoulders and determining to bravely seek a new one. :)

Ladybug made several God's eyes.  She gave this one to Sugar Bear.

Our day care morning tables included:

   Manipulating Wikki-Sticks and stringing cut up straw pieces onto shoelaces

   Playing with beans in a wading pool

   Coloring with crayons on the table that I'd covered completely with a roll of paper

   Building with wooden blocks

And one of the mornings, we had free play in the upstairs playroom.

One afternoon, I spontaneously squirted some clear hair gel and food coloring into clear gallon bags and taped them to the window.

After Li'l K and Stretch were done, my kids played with them until the bags popped and leaked.

I'm going to have to do this again!

Mister Man was assigned to teach part of the lesson for his age group class at church.  He made a set of 10 commandments matching pages in order to facilitate discussion about keeping the commandments.

We also made all of our valentines on Saturday.  I actually took the 6 younger kids to the craft store with me.  I told them ahead of time that they were perfectly welcome to say, "Mom, this looks interesting.  Will you consider it?" as long as they could also be aware that I would have to say no more often than I would be able to say yes.  

Honestly, they handled it quite well!

I said yes as often as I could, so they accepted when I had to say no.   They also seemed to believe me when I explained why one choice was better for our family than another.

The dining room looked like a craft store explosion for the next 10 hours, but valentines were made, and the mess was cleaned up.

Belle's mission papers are officially submitted.

She could have her call in a week!

Pixie is having so many amazing adventures in Uganda!  I wish I could record them all for her, but they are her adventures, and her responsibility to record. 

 I'll keep it simple with one picture:

She's coped with no running water, the fact that malaria pills make her nauseous, and electrical blackouts while she's lesson planning.  

The culture is so affirming that she has a reason to glow with delight every day.  She's told almost every day that she would make "a good African wife" because of some skill or personal quality or physical feature.

Dancing is a given.

Sightseeing is a constant.  She's going to raft the Nile on her birthday weekend.

The children she's teaching are so beautiful, and they giggle at her and the other teachers for their foreignness.

Her voice is so full of light that I can't wait to hear from her again.  

(Hurrah for international phone plans!)

There's more news to come about even more family members!  2023 is going to keep being a big year for our family!!