Christmas Week 2018

Tuesday Notes:

Christmas day was laid back and sweet. We made our traditional cinnamon rolls for breakfast. The kids opened their 3 gifts. Everyone was excited and spent the morning enjoying everything. A few kids chose 'experiences' this year, which is new for us. Makayla and Mommy will be going to see The Lightning Thief: The Musical at the theater the one night it is in Ohio. Joseph and Emma chose movie theater gift cards so they can see movies they are looking forward to in 2019. Daniel chose tickets for him and a parent (undecided which parent right now) to go to Cedar Point, an amusement park, which he has never done before. Some of us spent the morning watching a couple Christmas shows on Netflix while we relaxed. In the evening one set of grandparents and my sister's family came over for dinner (make your own subs), a cousin gift exchange, and games and gifts from grandma and grandpa. We ended the evening in a new way, and it was the highlight for me. My nephew brought his guitar and shared some Christmas songs with us, pulling Joseph in to play the piano for a duet, and then Makayla played some piano for us as well. So fun!

My sweet children. From left to right:

Emma 13, Rebekah 10 mos, Joseph 14,

Tobias 3, Mason 6, Samuel 5, Caleb 8, 

Daniel 11, Oliver 9, Makayla 17.

Wednesday Notes:

Re-entry to regular life after a holiday is always rough with kids. It was a cranky morning for a few but we let it work itself out. Daddy accompanied Joseph and Oliver to see the new Bumblebee movie in theaters. The boys paid for their own tickets and enjoyed the movie. We played Emma's new Marvel trivia card game shortly before bed and called it a night. I spent half an hour finishing up my 'high school counselor' duties on the Common App website, submitting Makayla's transcripts.

Thursday Notes:
I was up at 5am with Rebekah. Once she went back to sleep I stayed up to get some work done. My first task was going through each child's portfolio of school work for first semester. I sorted through papers and pulled samples to keep for the portfolio submission at the end of the year. I threw away the rest. For example, while the kids each had more than 50 math papers I only need a fraction of that for the portfolio. I made it through all but Makayla's portfolio. This is one way I gauge how our year is going and where we are at in our lessons.

Some subjects are obvious, they have lessons laid out in a book. Our history curriculum is set up this way. There are 60 lessons to cover during the school year. We can choose to do history frequently and finish the 60 lessons in a semester (leaving second semester to really focus on science), spread the 60 lessons out evenly over the entire year, or choose a completion date and do lessons at whatever frequency to meet that. We are on lesson 39.

Other subjects are a bit more free-flow and I evaluate how much work a child has done and how much more they need to complete to finish the course. Literature is a good example of this. I have a reading list that kids choose books from. They read most days of the week for a set amount of time. This means a quick reader will finish more books than an average or slower speed reader. I am okay with that. I simply want my children immersed in good books. They narrate to me as they read or after they finish. The older kids also have literature integrated within their language arts curriculum.

At 9am this morning Mason and I headed to the Physical Therapy office. He has been out of PT since his surgery in September. Now it is time to get back to work. Today we had an assessment with his therapist, set some goals, and lined up things that I need to do - like get an appointment with Mason's brace specialist to adjust his HKAFO braces if possible. He has grown and so we need to lengthen the current braces. If that isn't doable they will custom create new braces, which then takes getting a prescription for braces from the orthopedic surgeon or physical medicine doctor. While we wait for braces to be ready his PT focus will be core work, balance, and stretching.

Rebekah is enjoying reaching the table

to get food people leave unattended. 

The rest of our Thursday was spent cleaning, playing games, reading books aloud, cooking, and being a family.

Friday Notes: 
It is Friday morning and the kids are busy doing whatever it is they do on break. There is drawing, reading, playing Pokémon, enjoying gifts, and just spending time together. I plan to work on school preparations for second semester. We're also starting some short read alouds today. Have you seen the Tuttle Twins books by Connor Boyack? These are a fun introduction to economics and government. From their website: "Each book in this series focuses on a different aspect of the principles of a free society: free markets, competition, individual rights, the non-aggression principle, personal responsibility, protectionism, and a variety of other issues—all boiled down to core concepts that children ages 5-10 can easily grasp." 

Sounds fun, right? The titles are:

1. The Tuttle Twins and the Law
2. The Tuttle Twins and the Miraculous Pencil
3. The Tuttle Twins and the Creature from Jekyll Island
4. The Tuttle Twins and the Food Truck Fiasco
5. The Tuttle Twins and the Road to Surfdom
6. The Tuttle Twins and the Golden Rule
7. The Tuttle Twins and the Search for Atlas
8. The Tuttle Twins and their Spectacular Show Business
9. The Tuttle Twins and the Fate of the Future

We have books 1-8. We're just going to read and discuss as we go. My kids are always up for read alouds. 

Happy Friday all!

For God So Loved the World

I love Christmas because it leads to Easter and the promise of Resurrection! May your family be blessed by the gift of God's son and his gift of the Atonement. Please take four minutes and watch this video and share it with your loved ones.

2018-2019 Homeschool Notes Week 19 and Beginning of Break

Rebekah climbing on Mason, 

who was reading Latter-Day Prophets

to her. 

Monday Notes:
It felt like a Monday. Ugh. Several people were not in the mood for school work, including me! We persevered and did school anyway. I think my favorite lesson was history today, we learned about Thomas Jefferson, read from his letters, from things his contemporaries wrote about him, and about the Declaration of Independence.

Tuesday Notes:
We had smooth sailing in the school department as is usual for Tuesday around here. Various math, language arts, reading, latin, science, and other lessons happened spread over the morning. Makayla spent the morning printing the first draft of the novel she just finished writing last night. Our printer survived the more than 500 pages of printing. I have to say, I love our printer. We bought it last December and it has printed nearly 4000 pages this year without needing the ink refilled. It is an Epson ET-2750.

Wednesday Notes:
Daniel has really struggled with math this week. For those who know Daniel, they know that is unusual. Learning pretty much always comes easily to him. The growing pains have been fierce. This perfectionist child would rather give up completely than struggle through understanding something. We're working it out but it has been a difficult thing. I finally looked at him and said that today was "the best day ever" because we were going to choose to have it be the best day ever. We didn't have to be grumpy with each other. We could choose our attitude. He thought I was crazy, but in the end he was willing to go along with his crazy mom. One reason? Before the week began I realized this boy-child and I need more positive interactions. I grabbed him and told him that I thought we needed something fun to do together regularly and offered a few ideas. He thought playing a game together most days was a great idea. We've played something every day since. Some days it is just me and him, other days a group of siblings gathers to play with us. It's a simple thing, but it has made a difference.

Thursday Notes:
We surprised the kids with the start of Christmas break. Why? Because we homeschool and so we can! It was a totally laid back day.

My favorite moment was when I found all seven of my sons playing a board game together! The game is Journey Through Time: Eye Found It. The board is 6 feet long! You can find it on Amazon here (aff).

 My least favorite moment was at 10:30pm when Joseph, who escaped last week's vomit fest, threw up. It was a less than fun night with a few more episodes before he was finished.

Friday Notes:
Today just reminded me how grateful I am for my mom! Mason and I needed to be at Children's Hospital an hour away to meet with 10 of his specialists all morning. She took over sick care for Joseph, kept the rest of the kids fed and happy, and I didn't have to think about a thing going on at home. I could just focus on Mason and all his medical appointments.

The appointments went fine, just a lot of talking, asking questions, answering questions, and so on. He had a bladder and kidney ultrasound (everything is stable), leg x-rays from hips to toes to check on the metal plate and screws in his right knee and the degree of valgus (angle) for both lower legs (11 and 18), and then we had to trek back to x-ray after the doctor visits for updated x-rays of his spine because I'm pretty sure his scoliosis is worse (the doctor will call after Christmas but what I can read on the radiologist's notes makes me think I'm right). Specialists he saw included urology, neurosurgery, physical medicine, orthopedic surgeon, physical therapy, occupational therapy, developmental pediatrics, and more. We also had enough time between doctors to read aloud nearly half of one of Mason's favorite chapter books: Henry Huggins by Beverly Cleary.

Saturday Notes:
Grocery shopping happened. The Christmas toy cleanout happened (kids go through their drawer/bin of personal things to clear out clutter, pass things to younger siblings if they have finished with an item, or add things to the donate bag. Some of my kids are paper keepers and so they had a lot of papers to go through and decide what to keep and what to let go of.

Sunday Notes:
A quiet family day with a Christmas service at church.

Monday Notes:
Christmas Eve is here. Makayla and my husband both had to work today. I'm hanging out with the rest of the kids. I'm taking a social media break until the new year starting this afternoon so I wanted to get this post published, as well as one more, which will be up soon!

2018-2019 Homeschool Week 18 - A Half Week and Vomit Everywhere

Saturday and Sunday Notes:
This was Christmas party weekend. We had two Christmas parties to attend as a family which means the kids ate more cookies and candy in two days than should be legal, and loved every minute of it! Joseph got home from a winter campout in time to attend both parties, and on Sunday evening had a Court of Honor where he got 7 merit badges from his summer scout camp work.

I knew going into the week that we would only have three days of school. The other two days were going to be full of doctor and specialist appointments - 13 to be exact. In the end 11 of those appointments were cancelled due to vomit.

Monday Notes:
Kids woke on their own schedules, ate breakfast, and got busy with school work. I sat at the table to help whoever needed me. It was new math lesson day so I taught things like adding doubles, skip counting by 5, using tally marks, and division with remainders. Reading lessons happened with four kids. Makayla and I translated a couple of Latin paragraphs. Emma worked on physical science. It was just a normal Monday morning.

Tuesday Notes:
I think my favorite thing today was reading: kids reading aloud to me, kids reading on their own and telling me about their books, me reading aloud to kids, and people listening to audio books. Winter weather always makes me want to curl up and read and I'm thankful that many of my kids have the same inclination. I'm also thankful for audio books so those who would rather keep their hands busy can still 'read' great books at the same time.

Wednesday Notes:
My morning started with my 3 year old Tobias coming down stairs and throwing up before 7:00am. Never a good way to start the day, but everyone else seemed fine so we just plugged along with our last day of school for the week. That afternoon Emma headed to the orthodontist to get the first half of her braces (upper teeth). When we got home things started going downhill. Kids started throwing up, feeling sick, and laying around with bowls just in case. The average number of times vomit happened per child today was 5, though Tobias escaped with just once and Oliver had the record high of 7. Mason busted almost every blood vessel in his face during his several turns throwing up, so he looks like he has a lot of pink/red freckles now over his entire face. I called and cancelled Mason's 11 doctor appointment that were on Thursday and Friday.

Thursday Notes:
Almost everyone still felt yucky but nobody threw up. That is really the only thing that matters. There was very little done besides manage symptoms and keep people as comfortable as possible. Joseph had an orthodontist appointment and ended up with power chains and bands, so he's joining Emma in the miserable, sore mouth club. Emma turned 13 today, thankfully we celebrated earlier this month because she didn't feel up to any celebrating today.

Friday Notes:
Most were feeling 'not worse' and some even 'a bit better' today. I called for a totally lazy tv day when we discovered new seasons and episodes of various shows, as well as some old favorites. The shows people were most excited about today:

• Doctor Who current season (watching on Amazon) - 2 episodes
• Lego Ninjago season 9 (watching on Amazon Prime) - 2 episodes
• Miraculous (newest season, released today on Netflix) - 13 episodes 

Yes, you can see the one people were most excited about, can't you? We spread those 25 minute Miraculous episodes out over the day. There was much laughing, shrieking, sighing, celebrating, and guessing as we went through the episodes. It was fantastic and I suspect much drawing, story writing, and discussing will result.

Other than a lazy tv day, I fed people when they felt up to eating, did diaper changes, and held a generally fussy Rebekah all.day.long.  

It is Friday evening. I'm beat. Little ones have napped on an off today since they don't feel well. That means they aren't ready for bed even though it is bedtime. I'm hoping they get sleepy soon because I'm ready for bed! Daddy is home and we're tag teaming the rest of the night.

2018-2019 Homeschool Week 17 Notes and Reading

Saturday Notes:
We started the day with Caleb's baptismal service. There were a few hiccups and we actually weren't sure even 15 minutes before the start if we would be cancelling his baptism and rescheduling for another day, but it all worked out and was wonderful! We got a quick family picture and I shared it in my last post but here it is again.

After that we were able to pick up our van from the shop with only a minor car repair bill ($202). Makayla was my partner in crime for grocery shopping this week, in the rain for all 3 stops (Kroger to use a gift card, Aldi for the bulk of our grocery shopping, and Wal  Mart for a few specific items). In the evening we had a fun family home evening and decorated our Christmas tree. With Rebekah being 9 months old and walking we really couldn't use any ornaments  with hooks for her to choke on. Instead we used flower picks and glittery gold tulle. I think my entire family and home will be glittery for the next three months, but the tree was simple and beautiful. The kids love having the tree up!

Sunday Notes:
Today felt like spring in December. The weather was sunny and 60F. Church was great; it was Fast Sunday and testimony meeting. The afternoon at home afterwards was quiet and relaxing with windows open everywhere. In the evening family came by to celebrate Emma's upcoming birthday. She's a huge Marvel fan and her gifts often reflected that.

Monday Notes:
This was the first Monday in over 2 months that did not have a single doctor appointment scheduled. It was glorious! The morning was filled with homeschooling. New math lessons abounded, spelling happened, writing, science, and more. Right after lunch we finished up the day with history. By this point the house smelled delicious from the chili in the crock pot and I baked a pan of cornbread to go along with the soup for our dinner. The rest of the day was family time and projects.

Tuesday Notes:
My morning started with Rebekah waking up at 5am. I convinced her to go back to sleep just in time for Tobias to wake up at 5:30am. At that point I gave up on sleeping. My favorite part of the morning was watching kids help one another with homeschool lessons. Several kids had new writing projects in The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts. Makayla worked on a nature poem a la Emily Dickenson, Joseph wrote about the things he learned about work from a book he read, Daniel wrote the introductory paragraph for an essay on Asia.

In history today we were talking about the Second Continental Congress. We went from room to room finding papers that told some of the events between  1774 and 1776. We found John Hancock's signature on the Declaration of Independence. We read a letter George Washington wrote to his wife upon being chosen as the commander of the army. We read some of the Declaration of Independence itself.

The afternoon held our weekly piano lessons.

Wednesday Notes:
School, working teen, more school after work, trigonometry that may drive us batty yet, spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, and Cub Scouts.

Thursday Notes:
It was a laid back, hang out around the house, do the schooling, and a bit of food shopping kind of day. Nothing exciting, nothing terribly difficult. We tried a new cookie bar recipe that was simple and yummy:

• 1 box cake mix (we used chocolate)
• 2 eggs
• 1 stick of butter, melted
• 2 cups chocolate chips
• Mix it all and  bake at 350F for 25-30 minutes. I did need to add a bit of water to mine when mixing, it was just way too dry. I probably put in 1/2 cup of water. 

Friday Notes:

I finished reading the Book of Mormon again today! It was such a neat experience reading and looking for all the verses that talk about Christ. I wrote my own notes for every single chapter as I went, something I've never done before. I liked it so much I'm going to do the same thing for the Bible and the Doctrine and Covenants, starting tomorrow with the New Testament. 

Everyone was enthusiastic for the weekend, which holds two Christmas parties, and got right to work on school. At one point I was helping three kids with math while parsing Latin sentences with Makayla and listening to another child reading from their All About Reading lesson. It's always fun!

The rest of our day includes cousins visiting, Joseph heading out for a winter campout with the Boy Scouts, baking cookie bars for tomorrow's Christmas party, and a family movie. 

All About Reading Update

I have four kids using All About Reading and it's a great example of one reason I love homeschooling. My kids have all learned to read fluently at different ages, from as young as age 3 (picked up chapter  books on their own, no teaching from me) to reaching fluency around age 9/10. So here are the updates on where my current learning to read kids are at.

I realized yesterday that my Fourth grader Oliver, age 9.5, is nearing the end of All About Reading level 3 with only 3 lessons to go. He can read easy chapter books slowly. He just finished the third My Fathers Dragon book and picked up Bunnicula as his next literature book. We looked at the things taught in All About Reading level 4, which we don't own yet, and decided that he would benefit from it. That means I need to order level 4. It's $120 and completely reusable for the younger kids. He will continue reading books for fun outside his AAR materials, but will do the AAR lessons to fill in the gaps for phonograms he has not mastered yet, like ui, ough, and gn. 

My Second grader Caleb, just turned age 8, is in All About Reading level 2. He is not reading fluently at all. He sounds out most words still, but is comprehending the stories as he does. He is on lesson 29 and will just keep moving along at his pace with lots of practice. I have no idea when his fluency will kick in yet. He doesn't have to hurry ahead, we can go at his pace.  

My First grader Mason, age 6/turning 7 next month, hit fluency a month or so ago. He is sounding out few words in his level, reading from books outside of school time, and things are clicking. He is now on the exact same lesson as Caleb, All About Reading level 2 lesson 29, and will pass him up next week. We will fly through the level at his pace. He doesn't have to slow down and wait for others to be ready to move ahead.

My Kindergartener Samuel, age 5, is in All About Reading level 1 lesson 18. He is a wiggly boy who loves the games/activities of All About Reading. He is picking up the phonics at his own pace and would rather play than sit for lessons. I'm able to keep lessons short, sprinkle them through the morning, and emphasize the active reading games he loves. 

These are my 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th children. Each is going at the pace right for them. All of them love books and stories. They read, have people read to them, listen to audio books, and just enjoy it. My goal is to come out the other side of the learning to read journey with kids who love reading and who are adults who still love reading years later. 

Caleb's Baptism Day!

Happy Baptism Day Caleb!

2018-2019 Homeschool Week 16: Van Trouble and A Good Week

Mason  and Caleb building towers together

with the Citi Blocs. These two are only 13 months apart and 

lately they have been playing together more. It is sweet to see.

Monday Notes:
The first day back to school after Thanksgiving break went well, despite having appointments and other things on the calendar. The kids were all up and doing school pretty early. They wrote their own schedules out for the week and I sat down at the table to do a lot of math lessons. In between I would give spelling lists, help with little kid lessons, and encourage kids to talk less and work more.

At 8am Jason headed to the dentist to get a filling fixed that fell out last week. He dropped off paperwork at the surgeon's office and got home at 10am. In those two hours the kids and I got done all the subjects they needed my help with. Then Mason and I were out the door to get his dental work done while Daddy held down the fort and handled homeschool questions. By the time I was home again everyone was done with their work.

At lunch time I took four kids on a date. Makayla, Joseph, Emma, Oliver, and I went to see Fantastic Beasts 2: The Crimes of Grindelwald. We liked and hated it. It's a great dip into the Harry Potter universe but there were heart squeezing parts and unresolved things because there will be 3 more movies in the series. We will spend the next few days discussing bits and pieces, make theories about what is going to happen next, and just relive the movie.

Tobias is very 3 year old right now. He is opinionated,

sweet, and sassy by turns. He loves being right in the 

middle of things.

We got back at snack time. There were a couple loads of laundry to sort and put away. I think laundry is the worst when we are in the cold winter months because jeans take up so much space in the wash! Clothing for 12 people for just one day is more than 1 load of laundry.

Samuel having fun smiling for the camera.

It was soup night for dinner. Then we had a fun Family Home Evening with 'hink pinks' and learning about some of the women leaders in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Wait, you don't know what a hink pink is? Let me give you a few examples:

• What is an after dinner treat alarm?  Dessert Alert.
• What is a squash magician? Zucchini Houdini

You can find free hink pinks online, but we pulled ours from the November issue of The Friend Magazine. (Also free online)

After Family Home Evening I spent an hour in my bedroom wrapping gifts. We've finished all our Christmas shopping. We do 98% of it online so as packages arrive my goal is to check them off my list and wrap them. 

Emma working on science and 

waiting for me and my camera to 

go away.

Tuesday Notes:
We woke to a snowy day with tiny flurries swirling around. Kids woke on their own schedules and ate breakfast. Makayla and I did some Latin translation early. I remembered to charge my camera battery so I took a few pictures of kids randomly. Around homeschool lessons I baked four dozen muffins so that we would have a yummy lunch. I also wrapped a few more gifts. Caleb asked two of his brothers to speak at his baptism this Saturday. He was so excited when they agreed. One will speak about baptism and the covenants we make with our Heavenly Father and the other will speak about confirmation and the gift of the Holy Ghost.

In the early afternoon I spent a bit of time creating some peg dolls. I got the following peg dolls done today:

• Little Red Riding Hood
• The Wolf
• Grandmother
• The Woodcutter
• Three Little Pigs
• The Big Bad Wolf

Rebekah is walking! She is 9 months old and 

lights up a  room with her smile.

Wednesday Notes:
Chaos. After school I drove Makayla to work so I could take Emma to the orthodontist. Joseph babysat for part of that and then my sister and nieces dropped in for the rest. It was a good thing, because when Emma and I left the parking lot of the orthodontist our van died in the middle of a 5 lane road (2 lanes of traffic going one way, 2 lanes going the other, and the shared turn lane in the middle which is where I guided the van to when it died). We called grandpa and roadside assistance. Got the van towed to the mechanic and us dropped off at home. The plan was to have my sister pick Makayla up from work later as Jason wouldn't be home. Then the mechanic called. After pushing the van into their garage it started just fine. Nothing is wrong with it that they can find. My mom and her husband ran to the mechanic to pick up the van for me before they closed. They dropped it off about 5 minutes after Makayla texted me to come pick her up, so I did that. Now I worry every time my teen driver takes the van somewhere that it will die when she is the one behind the wheel.

Makayla is so busy! Between school, working, 

church activities, writing a novel, pet care

for her reptiles, and life in general

she's on the go and busy!

In the evening while the oldest three kids went to activities the rest of the kids made slime.

Joseph caught at the table doing some school work while snuggled under a blanket.

Perks of homeschooling for sure!

Thursday Notes:
Beautiful falling snow accompanied our morning of school work. We had no grumpy children, and no grumpy mommy. The afternoon was pretty relaxed. In the evening I wrapped the last Christmas present. This is the first time I can think of where I have no wrapping to do in December.

Daniel looking serious. 

Friday Notes:
The check engine light came on in the van so we decided to get it checked out again. Unfortunately by the end of the workday the mechanic still hadn't gotten to our van, so we now have just 1 car that doesn't fit our family in it and 12 people needing to be at the church tomorrow for Caleb's baptism, and back at church on Sunday of course. We're going to drive some of the family to o the church and then have one adult drive home to pick up the rest of the family and come back to the church. We'll repeat that in reverse to get everyone home. LOL! Joseph and Daniel also wrote their talks for at Caleb's baptismal service.

Oliver waiting patiently with his box of

Pokémon cards for a sibling to be

available to play a game.

We decided it was a perfect evening to watch a Christmas show and found Bah Hum Duck on Hulu. It is a retelling of Dicken's A Christmas Carol with the Looney Toons. We've read A Christmas Carol before and the kids like Looney Toons, so it was a hit!

Caleb is so excited to be baptized!

Scripture Reading Update: 
I'm in Third Nephi chapter 22 in The Book of Mormon and still journaling in a notebook about every chapter. It has been an amazing way to read and study this time!

I was hoping to get an  updated header made for the blog but it just didn't happen this week. I sprinkled pictures of all the kids throughout this post, for those who have been asking for pictures!

2018-2019 Homeschool Week 14 and 15

Saturday the 10th was date day at the temple with my husband. I love the peace I feel there. Being able to enjoy a long drive there and back talking with just my husband is another big perk. No kids to interrupt us!

Sometimes it is the little things that make a homeschool week special. For my kids in week 14 that was waking up Monday to the announcement that there would be no math this week. I really didn't want to take a complete school break this week, so dropping everyone's least favorite subject was the next best choice. Everything else went on as usual. Makayla spent the week writing a bunch of college essays for applications while also keeping up on her NaNoWriMo project (National Novel Writing Month).

We had our first winter storm on Thursday. Overnight everything was coated in 1/4" of ice. Then it rained for 8 hours or so. In the evening the rain switched over to snow, but didn't really do more than a dusting.

Friday there was much celebrating because once school was done for the day we were on Thanksgiving break. Week 15 was an entire week off! The weekend was a blur of family time and church. The week had more dentist appointments, finishing two college applications for Makayla, helping friends who are moving clean their new house, decorating with friends for a wedding reception, making turkey artwork with the several of the kids, cooking and hosting Thanksgiving, going to see the courthouse lights turned on for Christmas, visiting Makayla's work for treats at the lighting, and attending a wedding reception (and getting to be cleanup help after).

Painted paper gratitude feathers

made into a turkey

Somewhere in there I was supposed to print and prep things for the next 6 weeks of school. My printer decided to spend it's Thanksgiving break not speaking to my computer, so printing didn't happen until Sunday evening, but it did happen.

Rebekah also decided this week to start walking 4-5 steps at a time. She may only be 9 months old but she is in a hurry to master some of these milestones. I don't have a good picture of that because I'm trying to just enjoy every moment! I will see if I can remember to pull out my camera this week to snap some pictures of her walking.

2018-2019 Homeschool Week 13

Another week has flown past! Sunday we celebrated November family birthdays. Monday we had 7 dental appointments, ran errands, and were on the go most of the day.

Tuesday Tobias turned 3 years old. He's such a sweet, spunky, fun little man. He talks more than Samuel did at this age but has a long way to go still. He likes dinosaurs, Paw Patrol, and PJ Masks. He giggles, runs, hides, and chases. He is a pretty non-picky eater and will try almost everything. He loves salsa and hummus and anything you can dip in those.

Rebekah turned 9 months old on the same day. Her second  tooth came in this week. She cruises the furniture all the time and will let go and stand there for a few seconds before grabbing on again. She is generally happy and has favorites among her siblings depending on the day.

School on Tuesday was an exercise in patience. It felt like dragging certain children through the morning. I can tell it is time for a solid break soon. We are going to take the week of Thanksgiving off, which leaves us this week and next to get through.

Wednesday was a much smoother day. People trekked right through their work in a cheery mood. There was reading and history and math and all the usual subjects with no grumps. The evening had our usual church youth activities and Cub Scouts.

Thursday one grump surfaced. It is just a fact of life in a large family - there are so many personalities and so many feelings swirling around. Rarely will we go through an entire day without someone being out of sorts for a bit, and that is okay.

My husband and I had a budget update meeting together in the evening. It isn't the most exciting thing to do together but I love that we stay on the same page with our money.

Related to that, we also got my husband's official surgery dates. Yes, plural. He will be having knee surgery January 2nd and shoulder surgery January 30th. The surgeon expects him to be off work for 4 months. For one-third of the year we will have no income. That is a very overwhelming idea for a family of 12. It isn't the best news in the world, but we are doing all we can to prepare for this adventure. For most of that 4 months he won't be able to lift the little kids, including all the lifting we do multiple times a day with Mason. It limits a lot of things, like me taking a short term job while he is off work, because he won't be able to take care of the kids. We are looking on the bright side and plan to enjoy the extra family time this winter with Daddy home!

It is Friday afternoon as I type this. One child is practicing piano, three are playing Legos, two are drawing, one is at work, one is cruising the furniture, and two are discussing a favorite show. Dinner is in the crock pot and it is time to hit publish on this post. I'm going to turn on some Christmas music and gather some helpers to put away the laundry.

Happy November everyone!

2018-2019 Homeschool Weeks 10, 11, 12

Three weeks have passed since I last checked in here and it is all a bit of a blur. We started with a trip to the Ohio Renaissance Festival. It is always a fun adventure with lots of people in costume, a live joust, acrobatics, sword fighting shows, a village, shops, and games. The kids all had spending money and came home with a variety of items from handmade leather notebooks to wooden swords and shields. We have had a host of bruises, bumps, and bandages since!

The blur comes because in 3 weeks we managed to have TWENTY doctors appointments. We have at least seven more appointments next week.

We did all our school work, the house was relatively tidy, and everyone was fed each day. It is hard to imagine but we are done with 3 months of school work already. We have had a few adjustments here and there, but overall we are still using the curriculum we started the year with. I absolutely love The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts and History. From my perspective the Language Arts is much more streamlined in hitting all the different things we want without hopping between different curricula for writing, literature, grammar, etc. The History is a great mix of reading, audio stories, notebooking, activities, and research. I like that there are extensions for different grade levels in the notebooks to take things deeper but that we can still have a group lesson for topics. We have also learned a few interesting things, like the fact that Makayla does much better with Trigonometry than she did with Algebra 2, that Emma loves writing and hates writing assignments, and that noise cancelling headphones like you would wear at a gun range are a great tool for Daniel when it's time for school.

The biggest event in  the last three weeks for us was that Joseph passed his baked egg food challenge at the allergist. After 13 years of a total egg ban in our home we are now introducing eggs into our family's diet in a limited way. Joseph and Mason both have passed the baked egg challenge so they need to eat something with eggs in it at least 3 days per week for the next 6 months. Baked egg means some foods are still restricted: eggs cooked on the stove top like scrambled eggs, omlets, French toast, pancakes, waffles, ranch dressing, mayonnaise, fresh pasta, etc. Most everything else is fair game. So far we have tried doughnuts, meatloaf, snickers and milky way candy bars, corn dogs, and Hawaiian rolls. Cookies is next. In six months Joseph and Mason will each be eligible to try a soft cooked egg food challenge at the allergist's office.

I panic every time we eat something new, checking frequently that each child is not having a reaction over the 3 hours following consumption. I think after everyone has eaten a food item once and survived I won't worry about that food item the next time. It is going to take a while to get there.

Happy November everyone!

2018-2019 Homeschool Week 9: Still Sick, Plodding Along

We had a wonderful General Conference weekend as a family, watching each session, taking notes, feeling the spirit, and having our testimonies strengthened. I have twenty four pages of notes with things I heard and inspiration I received as I listened to God's prophet and apostles teach and share truth. Now our family will study these messages alongside the scriptures for the next 6 months until the next conference!

The rest of this week has been a blur. We still have sickness wandering through the ranks, coughing, fevers, runny noses. We have simply slowed down and focused on essentials. We are doing 4 day school weeks for the next 5 weeks. The reason is simple - we have more than 30 medical appointments scheduled between the 12 of us in those 5 weeks. Those are eye checkups, dental cleanings, allergy appointments, orthodontist, post-surgery checks for Mason, and other specialists. Every Monday has at least five appointments. We will take a week break somewhere in there because we have already finished 9 weeks of school without a break.

The kids did just fine on their school work this week. Every day was the usual round of lessons, reading, and learning. We finished listening to Wonder and watched the movie as a family because our book club day keeps getting pushed back due to illness. It was a good book and we enjoyed the movie too. Mason's only complaint was that the movie left out a few parts from the book. On Friday after school was finished most of the kids spent 2 hours drawing together. We have a membership to Art for Kids Hub thanks to a grandma. While you can see most of their art tutorial videos on their YouTube channel, the membership keeps the videos in a safe website with no ads and no way to click into the seamy side of YouTube. It also includes printable coloring pages and drawing tutorials. I will link to the tutorials the kids did today on YouTube. Please don't let kids use YouTube without direct adult supervision!

• Mario
• Thanos
• Two mice with cheese
• Bat and Vampire (Folding Surprise)
• Puppy Stack (Folding Surprise)
• Birthday Cake Tower (Folding Surprise)
• Ice Cream Tower (Folding Surprise)
• Big Mouth Pumpkin (Folding Surprise)
• Scary Cute Monster (Folding Surprise)
• 9 Different Kawaii Faces

They really liked the folding surprise ones. Basically, you fold the paper so that you can make a drawing with the paper folded and when you pull it open all the way the drawing has more hiding inside the fold. 

As much as I would love to write more, I have a baby to snuggle and a toddler to wrestle into using a tissue for his runny nose. Got to go!

2018-2019 Homeschool Week 8

Monday one child had a meltdown (not even over school work) that lasted over an hour. It is just a fact of life in a large family that not everyone is going to be in a good mood every day. Despite that, school work went on cheerfully for most everyone. Daddy taught or guided some lessons for the younger boys, while Mommy guided the rest. In the afternoon I had an endocrinology appointment.

Our Family Home Evening was called General Conference Guesses. Basically, I created a single page printable with questions and we talked about how we would answer those questions from last April's General Conference. Then we turned everyone loose to make their guesses for the General Conference happening this weekend. Everyone will be watching all the sessions of conference to see if any of their predictions were correct. Here are the questions, in case anyone is curious:

• What color robes will the choir wear?
• What songs will be sung?
• How many talks will there be in the entire conference?
• Will they announce new temples? If so, where?
• What topics will be spoken about?
• What will be some themes repeated across several talks?
• What news or changes will be announced?
• What people from the scriptures will be mentioned?
• What scripture stories will be told?
• What scriptures will be quoted or mentioned?

Tuesday kicked off with Tobias wandering downstairs in the morning with dried throw up on his cheek and shirt. Upon investigation it was also on his pillow, sheet, and blanket. Apparently he didn't care or didn't notice that he'd thrown up in the middle of the night. Ick. I spent the morning doing extra laundry and he spent the day laying on the couch watching cartoons. He also took a 4 hour nap.

Around that regular life went forward. We elected to cancel piano lessons to keep germs to ourselves and proceeded with a relaxed morning of learning. One of my favorite things about homeschooling is that I have intimate knowledge of each child's learning journey. I know what they are enthusiastic or curious about. I know where they struggle or when we need to approach something in a new way. I get to see the big and little moments.

Wednesday Tobias's fever had broken (yay) and two children were coughing and one had a sore throat. Apparently everyone is going to get in on these germs this week. We listened to Wonder (last week we decided to wait to finish once we realized illness was pushing book club back a couple weeks). There was a chemistry experiment with Makayla, fun reading lessons with younger kids, math, writing, and more. History today was about William the Conqueror. We learned about him and then compared his rule to the rule of King Alfred the Great.

Thursday it was almost comical. The prior day's sick kids were still sick and another one joined for sure and a second was a maybe (slowing down and laying around by mid-day, but no fever yet.) I'm trying to keep track, and so far the only ones who have not had at least a fever are Joseph, Mason, and Rebekah. We did a morning of school, listened to Wonder at lunch, and a bit more school in the afternoon. I also put a call in to the surgeon's office because one of Mason's incisions is looking pink and angry with some discharge. For now we are monitoring it and watching for any stitches to come to the surface. I've been instructed to pull any stitches that do.

Friday is here. School work was completed, mostly. We just didn't get to history today. Everyone has been fed. Looking back over the week it has been exhausting with the sickness trickling through. I've not gotten enough sleep because naps have happened at weird times for a few little ones and then they are up until nearly midnight. I'm not a night owl so it's rough. Rebekah has also been waking up some time between 3:30am and 4:30am every day. By the time I get her back to sleep it is nearly time for me to get moving for the day. This is just real life as a mom of many. If it isn't illness messing up sleep schedules or babies with their own unusual waking habits then it is teens who get home late and then are ready to talk to mom and dad. I'm blessed, thoroughly, wonderfully, exhaustingly blessed! 

2018-2019 Homeschool Week 7

Can we just cancel Mondays? I feel like I'm always running behind on Mondays with multiple kids asking for help with new lessons at the same time. Then there is hubby needing time to do his own school work, so I'm running interference to get kids to stop talking to daddy (we don't have a room he can go to with desk/table space other than right where everyone is already homeschooling). Add in appointments like today's bloodwork (me) and surgeon appointment (daddy). We learned that Daddy needs surgery on his shoulder and may have to take a full 3 months off work after surgery due to lifting restrictions. Rebekah also started climbing stairs and cruising furniture. It just feels crazy.

We did get all our school work done, as usual. We are still listening to Wonder and will finish it just before Book Club on Friday.

Tuesday was the day of phone calls to doctors checking on test results, reordering prescriptions, setting appointments, and getting information. School work happened. Brainstorming budget ideas for taking 3 months off work happened. I cooked some yummy pork fajitas for dinner. By evening Caleb was laying around with a fever and saying his head hurt. It's never good in a large family when someone gets sick. Just waiting to see how many this takes down.

Wednesday it was still just Caleb feeling sick. We took the day off of school to celebrate Mason getting his cast off (and to facilitate the 3 hours during the morning that I was gone with Mason to get that done). He now has a knee immobilizer (basically a Velcro cast) that we will use for a while, decreasing as healing continues. He was so happy to be able to take a bath today! One child DID do some school today because he is in the middle of a project and wanted to work on it.

Thursday was back to the usual learning routines. Kids juggled their Thursday and Friday schedule to even things out. Caleb's fever was gone but more kids started them. We cancelled Book Club for Friday so we don't share whatever mild germs are working their way through our house. Grandma (my mom, the kids call her Gwa) came over just before lunch and visited for a couple of hours.  It was so nice! Some weeks I miss adult conversation and having it randomly one afternoon was wonderful.

Friday's highlight was a date in the early evening for dessert with my husband. It was so nice to get dressed up and go out together without kids. I don't even have any other notes for Friday beyond more kids having fevers and laying around in blankets.

Saturday was grocery shopping and laundry and homeschool prep and an afternoon nap and family movie night. We popped popcorn and watched A Wrinkle in Time because it has made it onto Netflix. It was good and weird. It is Saturday evening and time to hit publish on this post so I can get kids to bed.

2018-2019 Week 6: Routine and Cast Problems

I left off last Thursday with the fact that Daddy was homeschooling most of the kids on Friday while Makayla and I were going on a college visit. Friday went well, everyone learned a lot and had a good day. The college visit was great, we got some questions answered, had a lot of information given to us, and it made it seem a little bit more real that my first baby is almost finished with her homeschool journey (sob).The weekend was quiet and home based - just the kind of weekend I love.

Monday Daddy's college semester began and the kids and I got busy on another homeschool week. We started our study of the Middle Ages with an overview of the Ancient Britons, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and some of the mythology of King Arthur. We looked at maps and enjoyed the stories.

I am seeing definite patterns emerge in the scheduling styles of my children. Each week I have a few kids in each of the following groups:

• Spreading all work evenly over the week, not overloading or making light any days.
• Concentrating their work in mainly over the first 4 days of the week, leaving a much lighter Friday. One child takes this to the extreme, with all possible subjects done every single day until the last two days of the week, where Thursday becomes lighter and Friday has even less. 
• Keeping Monday's workload light, to start off their week a bit slower.

I love that they can take responsibility for this. It makes for great life lessons as their week unfolds. 

Other Monday things: Dinner was chili and cornbread. It rained all day long and just felt like a good  soup day. After dinner was cleaned up we had Family Home Evening. For the family business portion of the evening everyone shared their ideas for food and snacks for General Conference weekend. I wrote it all down and we will refer to it the grocery shopping trip before conference weekend. After that we played Pictionary with a set of cards I bought a while ago from Chicken Scratch and Sniff. It has great themed cards like temple, prophet, Bible, King Benjamin, Joseph Smith, Jonah, and prayer.

Tuesday morning was filled with reading lessons, language arts, science, Latin, and math. There were many children to teach, help, and listen to. By lunch prep time I was ready for some quiet. I banished everyone from the kitchen while I made lunch and ate a pumpkin chocolate mug cake. For total transparency, I doubled the recipe for the mug cake and used a bowl. It was my lunch and totally worth every bite. I didn't share with my kids either. During lunch and again later in the day we listened to Wonder, our book club read aloud.

The rest of Tuesday involved emailing a college about how they prefer to receive homeschool transcripts (and if they have any other specific things they require for homeschoolers beyond that), sitting on the phone on hold with a medical supplier for way too long, and piano lessons. Daddy got home an hour after dinner time (remember, he is up at 2:15am and out the door for work by 3am) and basically sat down at his computer the rest of the evening because the new semester has started and he's doing college 1 or 2 classes at a time. It feels like it will take forever (he's been doing classes for 3 years I think) and I'm not a huge fan of being a single parent during the school semesters but you do what you have to do, right? This semester is an accounting class (last semester was too). I sat down with several of the kids to watch part of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.

Wednesday rolled out with a tired momma. Rebekah was awake more than once last night so my sleep was less than stellar. We did school and I just took a deep breath whenever I got frustrated with something and plastered a smile on my face, reminded my kids they are great at learning and that mommy was tired but loves learning with them.

History was a really fun lesson today on the spread of Christianity into Ireland and Saint Patrick. My little boys, who don't always choose to listen to our history stories, loved that pirates were involved in the story. My other kids (and I) loved listening to the story told with a beautiful Irish accent. We had an interesting discussion afterward. A few things we touched on:

• God speaking to people in dreams. We brainstormed examples from the scriptures. This tied in well with Joseph, son of Jacob/Israel, who also had dreams and was sold into slavery like Patrick.
• Sharing Jesus and the gospel message with others. Again, we came up with a list of examples, ranging from Ammon in the Book of Mormon and the Apostle Paul in the New Testament to daddy, who served a 2 year mission to Nevada. 
• The reality of God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit as separate individuals, united in purpose. This meant explaining what 'trinity' means to some Christians (as referenced in the story) and discussing why we believe differently. We also reinforced our recurring discussion that when people don't agree on something or believe differently we still love them and are friends because we are all children of God and that matters most. We can disagree without being disagreeable. 

In the later afternoon I finished watching Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom with some of the kids. We got to watch some of the bonus features as well and it was fascinating to see the way they put robotics and puppetry together in the scenes for some of the actor work with dinosaurs. In the evening was youth group, Boy Scouts, and Cub Scouts. Fun and tiring all in one.

Thursday felt super relaxed at first. The learning unfolded one lesson at a time. Kids got along all morning. I didn't feel like we were in a hurry to finish something. Kids wrote poetry, created watercolor pictures, made maps, and generally just enjoyed their school work. Then Mason's toes started swelling on the leg that is in a cast. A lot. We ended up making the hour drive to the surgeon's office so they could bivalve his cast (cut it from top to bottom on both sides, loosen, and then tape at the bigger size). We go back again next week to get the cast removed and see what things look like and decide what to do next (another cast for a short time or a knee immobilizer).

On Thursday we also made reservations with an Airbnb place for a family trip next summer for 14 of us (grandma and grandpa are coming with us). We're going to Palmyra, NY to see the Hill Cumorah Pageant. It's amazing. I went as a teen with my own family and we went many years ago when Makayla was a tiny tot. The Pageant focuses on sharing stories from The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. It is on a 10 level stage with more than 650 costumed actors. There are also historical sites in the area from our own church history to visit, and a beautiful temple. It is going to be a lot of fun!

Friday afternoon is here already. There have been science experiments, Latin parsing, math problems, reading lessons, and more listening to Wonder. Our routine has carried us through the day smoothly and we have just completed our first 6 weeks of school. Last year we did a 6 weeks on and 1 week off schedule. Right now nobody seems in need of an extended break yet so we'll just keep plugging along. I know in winter we are likely to need more breaks for illness because large families can take a month or more to get through one cold being passed around the family.

I suppose that's enough typing for now. I'm off to enjoy some family time!

2018-2019 Week 5: Post Surgery Week

I left off last week with the day before Mason's leg surgery. Friday was surgery and Mason and I were at the hospital until Saturday afternoon. Surgery went well and he's in a long leg cast for about 3 weeks. Sunday Daddy took most of the kids to church. Mason needed to stay home and keep his leg elevated and ice on an off, so he, Rebekah, Tobias, and I were home. It is a pretty quiet, trying to keep him entertained life right now.

Monday was a school as usual day. Mason is not thrilled with sitting around on the couch so we're trying to vary where he is at and what he is doing. School went just fine. We also had a dentist appointment and an allergist appointment. In the evening was Family Home Evening with a fun game (LDS Shout Out) and a chance to learn more about the Prophet and Apostles leading up to General Conference next month. We learned some fun facts about them.

Tuesday was a slow start for some of the kids while others were up by 5am and 6am. School work happened as usual. My favorite thing has been listening to Mason the last week or so do his reading. It has started to really click and he is sounding out a lot less and just reading words a lot more in All About Reading 1. He read a funny story about a boy named Frank who drank pink milk and shrank. There are adventures and then a return to regular size. Mason decided he would not want to shrink like Frank. Over lunch we listened to more of Wonder, our book club title.

Wednesday the majority of school went fine. History, however, not so much. For some reason half the kids were loud, chatty, and not interested at all in listening. I dragged them through the lesson. I totally looked at one child and said, "Just sit down and don't talk for 5 minutes please. Not a sound and stay sitting!" That was the last subject of the day. Tomorrow's plan is to do history earlier in the day. The rest of our afternoon and evening were family time, youth group for the oldest 3, and lots of play on the couch with Mason. Dinner was vegetable beef soup in the crock pot with some French bread.

Thursday kicked off with kids sliding right into school. I made the general announcement that we would do history at 9am and they would all be expected to meet on the couch, pausing whatever they were working on. It went really well today. We finished Unit 1 in The Good and the Beautiful History 1, which goes from the Creation through Ancient Egypt's history. Today we talked about Moses and the Israelites, then an overview of the conquering nations and dynasties in Egypt's history from 600BC to modern times. Next week we move forward in time from Ancient  Egypt to the Middle Ages and Renaissance. We will hit some of the following topics for unit 2:

• Early Britain
• Stonehenge
• Spread of Christianity in Ireland (Saint Patrick)
• Christianity going to England
• Saint Augustine
• Feudalism
• Life of a Knight
• Life in a Monastery
• King Alfred the Great
• William the Conqueror
• The Magna Carta
• Chivalry
• Joan of Arc
• The Black Death
• The Scientific Revolution
• Isaac Newton
• Galileo
• The Huguenots

We have one field trip planned during this unit, to the Ohio Renaissance Festival. We have gone the last few years and it is so much fun! Real life jousts on horseback, shows, shops, and a queen - the kids enjoy it almost as much as the adults.

Mason has graduated to less time sitting with his foot elevated and more time in this borrowed wheelchair that has a foot rest for his cast.

Tomorrow Daddy is off and taking over the homeschooling while Mommy and Makayla make a college visit for Buckeye Preview. Then it is the weekend and family time!

2018-2019 Week 4: Sick and Surgery Tomorrow

Dragon fruit

I left off last week sick and that was really how I spent the week, slowly working through my summer cold. Monday I felt pretty miserable but we carried on anyway. There was a new week of school work to do. Yes, it was labor day, but we planned to take Friday off instead (surgery day for Mason), so our morning was school work. Just before lunch we headed down the street to watch the Labor Day parade in the heat. The kids enjoyed it and that is what matters, right? In the evening we tried a new fruit - dragon fruit. None of us had eaten it before. We cut it open, spooned some out to eat, then blended some up in a green smoothie to try it that way. The texture is reminiscent of kiwifruit.

Tuesday: A normal school day, mommy feeling a smidge better, piano lessons. I got on the phone today and made 13 medical appointments, including eye checkups for 9. I still have 9 dental cleanings to schedule. It truly is never-ending.

This Week's School Books

Wednesday I'm still having headaches (sinus pressure). It poses a bit of a challenge when listening to child after child after child telling me things, asking me questions, or reading to me because it simply makes the headache worse. Reading aloud is also a bit challenging. We made it through school anyway, because routines carry us through. The only modification today was I paired Joseph and Emma to read aloud to each other instead of reading with me.

The bins that keep each child's school

work organized. Total sanity saver!

Thursday was our Friday for school. Kids diligently worked through each subject. There was a failed science experiment with Joseph and Emma (twice!) and a successful one with Makayla. There were math lessons and reading aloud and grammar and spelling and on and on. It was wonderful!

Rebekah turned 7 months old today. She's crawling all over and into all the things. She sits herself up and plays and if she gets too excited still falls. She's tried sweet potatoes and liked them.

We got the official surgery time for Mason tomorrow and it is in the afternoon. This is good and bad. Good because we get to sleep instead of leaving at 4:30am to drive to the hospital (our usual for an early morning surgery time). Bad because Mason will be awake for hours and hours without being allowed to eat while surrounded by kids who are able to eat. We head to the hospital an hour before lunch. I don't know yet how many hours the double surgery will take.

The rest of our Thursday will be packing for the hospital, meal prep for those left at home, and family time.

2018-2019 Week 3: Random and Routine

Sunday evening I reminded the kids that I would be gone part of our school day with Mason for his pre-op appointment, so they needed to do school right after breakfast or in the afternoon if they needed me. Most of the kids chose to schedule their Monday as a lighter day of work and we were able to get through their lessons that needed taught by 10am (other things, like independent reading or handwriting could be done while I was gone). Mason and I got back from his appointment 3 hours later.

For Family Home Evening we did a bowling and junk food dinner trip. Bowling happened before dinner time and when we finished we picked up a bunch of French fries at Wendys along with their 50 cent frostys. Yes, dinner was fries and ice cream.

Tuesday and Wednesday were a continuing of the routines. Each morning kids pulled out their self-designed schedules and got to work. I sat at the table or in the living room available to help as needed with lessons. There were also piano lessons on Tuesday and we have one new student - mommy. I took piano lessons for about 6 months in my late teens and then life happened and I never got back to it. I decided I can surely fit 30 minutes of piano practice into my day around mom and wife life. It may be early, late, or broken into 10 minute segments, but it will happen. My goal is to be able to play from our church hymn book. I have a long way to go!

Dinner Wednesday evening was beef stew in the crock pot. As soon as dinner was finished I gathered up books and made a mommy-only library trip. I posted about it HERE. Makayla and Emma helped host a family history and indexing event at the church while Joseph went fishing with the Scouts.

Thursday felt like one eternal round of reading for me, homeschool, chores, piano, reading to kids, cooking, and more reading. In the evening Daddy and I spent 40 minutes with the three youngest boys going through clothing bins from the attic to find what fits and what we need to buy for fall and winter. It was a good regular day.

Friday I was exhausted before the day began. Rebekah is following the pattern most of my kids have followed - when she is going through a large physical developmental leap she stops sleeping well. She woke up three separate times last night (11:30pm, 1:30am, and 5:30am) and Tobias added a random wake up in there at 4:30am so I was up a lot. Thankfully the kids were motivated to get school done because the cousins and aunt (my sister) were coming over in the afternoon. Thank goodness!

We had a fun visit with the cousins and then it was dinner, veggie pick up, library book pick up, and crashing hard for mommy. I managed to get a summer head cold.

Saturday morning I finished going through clothing in the attic to check what we still need for each child for this fall/winter. Later that morning Makayla and Emma were my helpers on the fall clothing shopping trip for the family. Thank goodness for the girls, because I still wasn't feeling great and they did a lot of the shopping. We hit several stores including Once Upon a Child, Plato's Closet, and Target. We found almost all the clothing needs for 10 children, stayed under budget (spent $395), and will finish filling in the last few items later this month. Then we will look at who needs new shoes...

 It is Sunday morning as I get ready to hit publish and I'm still feeling really sick, so I'm sending daddy off to church with the older 8 kids and I will keep the 2 year old and 6 month old home with me.

Using the Public Library to Expand Our Shelves

Our library shelf. The kids know this is where to find

any library books we have checked out -

and where to put them when they are finished reading.

I have shared before that we live in a smallish 3 bedroom house for the 12 of us (think 1200 sq. ft. of living space outside of the icky basement and unfinished attic). We own more books than the average family, I suspect, but even so, we make regular use of the library. We check out stacks of books, especially picture books or titles we wouldn't spend money on but the kids enjoy for a season. My kids like taking stacks of books to bed to browse through for the hour of flashlight time they have (8pm-9pm). I thought I would share this week's library haul. Of these books, only 2 were reserved ahead of time, the rest I found simply by browsing the shelves.

• Poppy and Vivaldi by Le Huche - We actually found four in this series at our last trip and the kids love them. These books play sounds, integrated with the stories, and focus on composers and their musical pieces, or groups of instruments. The kids wouldn't let me return them yet.
• Big Book of Pirates by Vinyoli - Thirteen suspenseful pirate tales for my pirate loving boys.
• How the Sphinx Got to the Museum by Hartland - This fits in well with our current history studies.
• PJ Masks Race to the Moon (and one other PJ Masks book) - This early reader is a great example of a fluff book we wouldn't spend money to add to our personal shelves, but that are a current favorite character for some of my littlest boys.
• There's No Place Like Space - This is a Cat in the Hat Learning Library title. These are always fun and educational.
• Hark! A Shark! - Another in the Cat in the Hat Learning Library.
• A Castle Full of Cats by Sanderson - The Queen's cats try to befriend the king, with mixed results.
• Nanuk the Ice Bear by Winter - We have polar bears at our zoo so it is a familiar favorite.
• Melissa's Octopus and Other Unsuitable Pets by Voake - A cute story of kids with very unusual pets.
• Goodnight Ark by Sassi - A laugh out loud tale set on Noah's Ark.
• Castaway Cats by Wheeler - Fifteen felines are marooned on an island and make a new home.
• One Night, Far From Here by Wauters - A trip through different biomes with see through pages.
• Seadogs: An Epic Ocean  Operetta by Wheeler - An interesting mix of comic book style illustrations with poems and songs along the way.
• The Whole Foods Diet by Mackey - One of the books ordered ahead of time, for me. 
• Land of Stories: Worlds Collide by Colfer - I found this one on the new titles shelves and picked it up for Emma, who loves this series.
• QB: My Life Behind the Spiral by Steve Young - The second book I ordered ahead of time, for me. 
• Dalmatian in a Digger by Elliot - Cute picture books with animals and a construction project.
• Over Under in the Garden by Schories - An alphabet book of plants with insects hiding on each page as well.
• Pirate Puzzles by Maidment - 30 puzzles to solve to follow the adventure of Pip.
• Cowboy Puzzles by Maidment - 30 puzzles to follow the adventure of Rocky.
• Curious George early readers - I grabbed Fire Dog Rescue and Dinosaur Tracks.
• Big Size Surprise by Baruzzi - This is a fun board book where each page shows a picture and then the page unfolds to expand that picture into something new. Tobias adores this one and also loved Look, Look Again by the same author.
• Picture Puzzle Book by Usborne - A very large board book with things to find on each page. As you will see in the next several titles of the list, I pulled a stack of search and find style books at this library trip.
• Under the Sea Picture Puzzle Book by Usborne - Another large board book with colorful illustrations to search through.
• Color Camouflage by Schuette - A spot it book where each two page spread has items jumbled together all in one color family. At the end of the book are extra challenge lists for the very enthusiastic.
• Very First Book of Things to Spot Out and About by Usborne - A board book with less cluttered pages for younger kids new to search and find books. This includes question prompts for me to ask my little ones to find something specific on each page, like who is wearing red boots or find a car with two passengers.
• Let's Find Pokémon by Aihara - My pokemon loving kids can find their favorite characters.
• Where's Waldo? Deluxe Edition by Handford - It was time to introduce some of my younger children to Waldo. Mason and Samuel are loving it! This is the first Waldo book that was created, with a few fun extras.
• Where's Waldo? The Wonder Book Deluxe Edition by Handford - Under the flap of each page of the deluxe editions is a list of more things to find in each puzzle. 

We still have some books from an earlier library trip up in the kids bedrooms. I know Makayla has a stack of chapter books and Emma probably has a few as well. Sometimes I order a lot of books ahead of time and pick them up at our library's drive through window. Our library has no late fees and large lending limits (99 books out per card). They have many other things available to borrow, including instruments, dvds, music cds, and board games, but we mostly stick to books. 

What are some of your currently checked out library titles? Have your kids read any of the ones on my shelf right now?