Random notes from Week 30 and 31

Life in a large family is more fulfilling than I can express. It is also very full. I've not had time the last two weeks for daily notes but there are some things I want to record on the blog. Let the randomness commence!

Homeschooling trots right along. Nothing unexpected, no major struggles. We're in the home stretch of the school year with spring arriving and that means our goal is simply consistency. We keep moving forward. 

With spring also comes homeschool planning for fall. I will have 8 official students: Grade 12, 8, 7, 5, 4, 2, 1, K, plus a preschooler and a baby. With planning comes shopping and the first of our curriculum packages is due to arrive in the next week. I still have planning to finish so I won't share anything else about this until that is complete. 

Rebekah is 7 weeks old. She is smiling often, chubby, snuggly, and sleeps 7-8 hours in a row at night. She's awake more during the daytime. We have started pulling out 3-6 month size clothing and putting away most of her 0-3 month clothing. 

My 6 week postpartum checkup happened last week. My uterine prolapse has healed pretty well and I won't need surgery. This is a wonderful blessing. I'm not dealing with postpartum depression (which I have had with some babies and not with others). I do have low iron again. It isn't critically low and in need of iron infusions like I had in December. This time I'm trying something different. Instead of iron pills I'm taking 4 dessicated liver pills along with vitamin c each day. My doctor thinks my body will respond better to the iron in the liver because the fats and other vitamins/minerals in the liver help my body too. I hope he's right because these pills smell and taste like liver - disgusting. We will check things in 3 months. Next week I get a thyroid panel done for my endocrinologist to check my hypothyroidism and see if adjustments need made in that medication as well. 

Samuel got hives this week randomly. Several days of Benadryl around the clock have gotten them under control and currently they are gone. I know they can come back on and off for a while yet, but I hope that we're done with them.  

Mason had his physical therapy evaluation to get things started back up post-surgery and recovery. It's been 5 months since he has been able to do PT, get in his HKAFO braces, use his walker. Today he went right back to it like he had never stopped. It's crazy that he still has the upper body strength. There has been some weakening in his core again - but that is a never-ending battle. We are going to do PT weekly for a while to work on a couple goals.

This weekend is Easter and General Conference. It's the best possible combination of favorites and we have been counting down the days. You can watch General Conference online free. In preparation for Easter our Family Home Evening this week was Resurrection Eggs. We don't do the Easter Bunny (or Santa, or Halloween for that matter). Our plastic eggs were numbered 1-12. Inside were items and scriptures related to the last week of Christ's life, his Atonement, crucifixion, burial, and resurrection.

Pack meeting for my Cub Scouts was this week. It's the big meeting of the month where all the dens meet together for activities. After flag ceremony and awards a couple dens performed skits on stage. Then we did several acting games. It was a lot of fun to see the boys step out of their comfort zone and just enjoy trying something new.