Sunday we had our usual Sabbath day with a quiet morning getting everyone awake, fed, and dressed for church, then church from 10am-1pm.The kids were excited that two of their cousins joined us for church. The afternoon and evening were restful. I even got a nap. Yes, that's an ideal Sunday afternoon!
Monday morning dawned early so I could get my exercise in before too many kids woke up. Of course, by 5:50am when I made it downstairs two kids were up. My early risers. They happily ate leftover cinnamon rolls from last night's dinner while I did my T-Tapp dvd (18 minutes) and 1 mile of a Walk Away the Pounds dvd. Before I was finished 3 more kids were awake. It wasn't even 7am. I then spent 2 1/2 hours driving and doing an appointment at the wheelchair vendor getting repairs done for Mason's wheelz. Mason wasn't needed so he stayed home and I listened to an audiobook for all that driving. Sometimes it is nice just to have a bit of mom time.
Monday afternoon was grocery shopping, which is always a lot of work. Keeping the 11 of us fed is a never-ending task but I am beyond blessed to have food in the house.
I also had to run to the hospital for thyroid bloodwork, which I'll do every month during pregnancy. I'm curious - would anyone be interested in reading blog posts chronicling my pregnancy? I'm debating on putting them here on the blog.
Monday evening was a family hot dog roast and smores. The weather was perfect - 72 F with the occasional breeze. We played Would You Rather after everyone had eaten. It's an informal game where people ask a question beginning with "Would you rather..." Some examples:
- Would you rather live on a space ship or in a submarine?
- Would you rather have a giant hamster or a tiny rhino?
- Would you rather be invisible all the time or be able to read people's minds?
- Would you rather live in a world with dinosaurs or dragons?
We also had some discussion about questions like these:
- What book world would you love to live in for just one day?
- What movie would you like to be in for 24 hours?
Tuesday started with my early morning exercise and then a surprise double dentist visit. Emma needed a baby tooth pulled that had wedged one root in and was bothering her. Caleb flossed his teeth after breakfast and then brought me a piece of filling that fell out. Nothing like keeping our days interesting! They were quickly finished and home again. Then I was able to pick some homeschool books from the shelves of a friend who is moving and had sold all she could a few weeks ago. She also had a few dvd sets from The Great Courses to pass along, so those are on my shelves ready to explore.
I started listening to the first Ranger's Apprentice book today. Joseph had encouraged me to begin and as I am between books it seemed a good time to begin. Well, it was so interesting that I found myself listening or reading (we have the audio book and a print copy) on and off all day between my usual mothering tasks. I finished it around 6:15pm. That's a good book!
Wednesday I did a 2 mile Walk Away the Pounds dvd to get my morning going. We had a relaxed morning (hello summertime!) with reading and play, dress up, sword fights, drawing, and disagreeing over Legos. My sister's family came for their last visit before they return to Germany. We had sad goodbyes with one child sobbing, but we know we will see them again in a few months.
Being Wednesday, our activity night, I had Cub Scouts to teach. We learned about fossils. I have a great book about Sue the t-rex that we worked through and discussed things like tools that would be used at a fossil dig, how fossils form, and just how big a t-rex was. Then we made an edible fossil dig. Each boy had a small clear cup, animal crackers (our fossils), pudding, whipped cream, and crushed oreos to layer. We let these sit while we played our dinosaur memory match game we made last week. Then we ate our fossil dig and finished up the last few pages of the book about Sue.
Thursday was gray and rainy so we settled in for a slow summer morning doing chores, reading books, building amazing Lego creations, drawing, and reading more books. I finished the fourth book in the Ranger's Apprentice series. Yes, I read quickly. That was 4 books in 3 days. I don't often get to do that, but early summer is a great time. The only problem is that there are several books left in the series and I don't have them! I'm going to try and get to a Half Price Books store soon to see if I can find the rest of the series. That's where we got the first four books.
Thursday evening was Makayla's Track Banquet. We're officially finished with the track season. She had a great second year running on the local public high school team, improving her best times in each of her 3 events over the season.
It's Friday morning and I'm hoping to hammer out our yearly chore changes today. The kids have done well with their room assignments for the last year and it's time to move everyone to a new room for the next 12 months. The only other plan is to bake some banana bread and pumpkin bread today. Yum! Have a lovely weekend!
Fruit Report - Here's the fruit we ate this week:
{Linking here.}
I started listening to the first Ranger's Apprentice book today. Joseph had encouraged me to begin and as I am between books it seemed a good time to begin. Well, it was so interesting that I found myself listening or reading (we have the audio book and a print copy) on and off all day between my usual mothering tasks. I finished it around 6:15pm. That's a good book!
Wednesday I did a 2 mile Walk Away the Pounds dvd to get my morning going. We had a relaxed morning (hello summertime!) with reading and play, dress up, sword fights, drawing, and disagreeing over Legos. My sister's family came for their last visit before they return to Germany. We had sad goodbyes with one child sobbing, but we know we will see them again in a few months.
Being Wednesday, our activity night, I had Cub Scouts to teach. We learned about fossils. I have a great book about Sue the t-rex that we worked through and discussed things like tools that would be used at a fossil dig, how fossils form, and just how big a t-rex was. Then we made an edible fossil dig. Each boy had a small clear cup, animal crackers (our fossils), pudding, whipped cream, and crushed oreos to layer. We let these sit while we played our dinosaur memory match game we made last week. Then we ate our fossil dig and finished up the last few pages of the book about Sue.
Thursday was gray and rainy so we settled in for a slow summer morning doing chores, reading books, building amazing Lego creations, drawing, and reading more books. I finished the fourth book in the Ranger's Apprentice series. Yes, I read quickly. That was 4 books in 3 days. I don't often get to do that, but early summer is a great time. The only problem is that there are several books left in the series and I don't have them! I'm going to try and get to a Half Price Books store soon to see if I can find the rest of the series. That's where we got the first four books.
Thursday evening was Makayla's Track Banquet. We're officially finished with the track season. She had a great second year running on the local public high school team, improving her best times in each of her 3 events over the season.
It's Friday morning and I'm hoping to hammer out our yearly chore changes today. The kids have done well with their room assignments for the last year and it's time to move everyone to a new room for the next 12 months. The only other plan is to bake some banana bread and pumpkin bread today. Yum! Have a lovely weekend!
Fruit Report - Here's the fruit we ate this week:
- 6 lbs apples (less than usual because we had so many other wonderful options in the fridge.)
- 1 cantaloupe (we will probably eat the second one today)
- 6 lbs grapes
- 2 pineapples
- 8 lbs strawberries
- 1 watermelon
- 1 container of blackberries
- 6 kiwi
- 18 bananas (8 were eaten and we'll use 10 in banana bread and pumpkin bread today)
{Linking here.}
I'd follow your pregnancy--living vicariously through you. :) I'm really mourning the end of the babies stage. Though we have a couple of busy, busy 2 year olds, and our hands are so very full with everyone else in the family, there's still nothing like a new baby! Even my teens have begun to say wistfully, "It's a long time before we'll be having babies . . . we don't have any babies right now."
ReplyDeleteI could give a comparable fruit report, too. :)
I guess I'll have to look up these Ranger books!
Your hands are definitely full! The end of babies stage will be wonderful and sad at the same time I suspect.
DeleteThe author for the Ranger books is John Flanagan. I had picked up the first 4 as a possibility for Joseph this year on the recommendation of a friend I trusted enough that I didn't even preread them. He's on book 4 and so I figured it was past time for me to catch up so we can have better discussions about it. There is a balance of realistic (not perfect) people, with strong males and females as well as weak ones. Definitely enjoyable.
Oh definitely write about your pregnancy here for us to follow!
ReplyDeleteI defrosted/organized our deep freeze this week, and realized we have a whole turkey waiting for a feast as well.
Wow, that's a lot of fruit!
I'd follow your pregnancy - another person who'd be living vicariously through you. I'm no longer able to have children and my youngest will turn nine this year, and my granddaughter lives across the country from me. I love pregnancy and babies.
ReplyDeleteThat's a lot of fruit! We eat a lot of fruit too but not nearly that amount. Of course we only usually have five people in the house instead of your eleven.
Sounds like you had a wonderful visit and week!
I enjoy reading all that you write. Bring on the pregnancy report. I love the fruit report as well. Is is shocking that my three kids at home eat about half of that a week?! Yikes.
ReplyDeleteBlessings, Dawn
I'don't love to follow along with your pregnancy. I'm impressed you can exercise so early. I leave it to the other end of the day.
ReplyDeletePregnancy and thyroid problems are my life. I'm sorry it took so long to get it figured out. You can always wait to go in after you have the baby and your levels drop so you burn all sorts of weight. 😋. I did that once by accident, fastest weight loss ever.
ReplyDelete