We Didn't Do Any Forest Bathing

 After our usual morning routine and school with the high schoolers, I gathered up the kids for a walk and some forest bathing.

However, my phone rang with Belle's weekly call, and I dropped all plans so that I could talk with her.

The kids and I walked along the people trail until they found a deer trail leading to the river.

And they were off!

Belle and I finished our conversation just about the time the kids got hungry and thirsty enough to head back to the van where the playground and snacks were located.

Of course, we stopped to observe a caterpillar crossing the path.

Later in the day, I was trying for a bit of positive self-talk, "It's okay that we didn't do our planned activity.  The exercise, the time in nature, and the freedom to explore were all beneficial," when Lola and Beowulf exploded through the door to show me their roasted walnuts.

These roasted walnuts were harvested, opened, and roasted by the kids themselves.

It turns out that because Sir Walter Scott had a fire going in order to burn (even more!) old documents and because I'd taken them out for the morning where we'd casually talked a little bit about wild edibles, the kids were inspired to see what they could forage and eat right in our own yard.

It actually was enough that I'd just taken them out and talked with them about what they were interested in!

They took it from there.

The rest of the week was harder.

Brother and I had an appointment with his psychiatrist on Tuesday.  It ended up being a pretty good therapy session.  But those appointments exhaust me, and I was barely functional for the rest of the day.

I mean I fed, kept safe, listened to, organized, and mothered in all of the needed ways, but I couldn't do more than that school-wise.

That evening, the 11-and-ups headed to the church for various games--some played laser tag and others played outdoor group games.

The youngest 3 watched a Pokemon movie while I cleaned the kitchen.

We finished My Side of the Mountain on Wednesday evening., and the kids completed their second historical person report of the week on Clara Barton (the one they did on Monday was about Florence Nightingale).

I took this picture of Nature Angel's book.

It makes me happy to see her get so involved in her self-driven poetry studies.

We also made and delivered sympathy cards for our neighbor.  (Her dog was hit by a car and died the night before.)

Nature Angel spent a long time outside with Sugar Bear and The Munchkin.  While they played, she got caught up in our exploding milkweed pods.  She began pulling the fluff off the seeds and trying to spin it into thread/yarn.  

I haven't seen anything since that first day of discovery, but I hope she's still working on it.

I know she's crocheting, designing, sewing, and doing a ton of school.

Little Princess has been super frustrated with Khan Academy--too many tech issues that just aren't being resolved.  She'd be done with her pre-algebra class if the modules didn't fail to load or quit working just as she completed one.  I know she's not faking the problems because I've watched them happen time after time.

However, she is making great strides in her other coursework, and her new CAP leadership manual arrived, so she can start studying for her next promotion.

Both high schoolers wrote and re-wrote paragraphs in which they worked on the skill of sharing clear evidence to support a topic sentence as part of the Rod and Staff English textbook we're using this year.

The kids and I completed Life of Fred: Dogs this week.

We really got into functions!

Mister Man presented us with the best function of the week.  I'm proud even of myself for figuring it out, and the kids who also did so are over the moon with delight.

I read Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving to the kids, but they didn't enjoy it at all.  I was hoping they'd enjoy it and be ready to listen to his other creepy tales (The Legend of Sleepy Hollow) for Halloween this year, but it's probably for the best--I'm not sure they're ready for scary stories of this caliber!

Instead, I started The Phantom Tollbooth, and they're all hooked.

We had a lovely walk one day.

But the evening fell apart when Brother had a violent episode.

This one at least ended in some really good conversation, prayer, and working together to undo some of the damage.

We didn't have Sugar Bear or The Munchkin for the next couple of days because Brother was tearing things up when their daddy was supposed to pick them up, and I steered him to the vacant lot on the other side of the block for pick up.

(Nature Angel walked them over.)

I would be scared to take my kids back to a place where the childcare provider couldn't even let me on the property because another child was dangerous.

I wonder what will happen next week.

We had a family therapy session the next morning, and then Sir Walter Scott took everyone to the park to blow off steam.

I cooked and cleaned at home while Nature Angel sewed, but the rest of them played at the park. :)

Nature Angel's photos were delivered.  This was a just-for-fun photo shoot by one of her youth leaders one church activity night when they went to the temple grounds.

I'm only including my favorite one, but there were many lovely photos.

Brother had a breakdown over a reading lesson one day this week.  He tried to tear his book apart; he screamed; he swore it was useless to even try.  But I was blessed with the inspiration to tell him about Thomas Edison and this quote, "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

We had a good conversation about being willing to work in the face of failure and remembering the goal over the difficulties.  He agreed that he needs to become at least functionally literate (able to read job applications, contracts, driver's permit exams, etc.), and it's worth the blessings of functional literacy to do the hard, horrible, frustrating work it has taken and will still take to get there.

I, of course, hope he will find joy in reading someday, but I've promised I will be proud of him no matter what he thinks about reading.  

And I'm already proud of how he tried to fix his book and came back to me to willingly try the lesson again.

Beowulf's ODD is getting harder and harder to cope with.

When he's cooperative, he's so excellent.

When he's opposing/defying, he's impossible to reach.

The kids had their last day of soccer on Saturday.  A homeschool team from another part of town joined us for practice and scrimmaging.  It was really fun for the kids to have properly competitive games. 

Ladybug got a lot of compliments on her toughness as a goalie (kids rotated positions).  She got walloped in the face and abdomen, but she took the hits in stride and just kept playing the game.

Those hits help me understand why she calls it "fighting a game" instead of "playing a game."

Sir Walter Scott is sick.

I'm taking garlic prophylactically.

Please wish me good health!