Catching Up: Four Weeks from October to November

Blocks never fail to entertain.

Monday, October 26th was the day Mason finally got his cast off. Nearly six weeks in a cast was a lot of work, and a lot of working around things. It also posed risks for Mason. While I would like to say the cast came off and he had no unfortunate effects, I can't. As I type this, it is Monday evening, and we are still waiting to see what all will happen. 

So far, his leg has swollen a lot, which was not unexpected. The tricky part of that is we won't know for a few days if that swelling is a normal body response or if it is in response to the leg bones being broken during cast removal. (Remember, Mason has osteoporosis, so that is a very real possibility.) 

He also has one area we are watching to see if it will be a pressure wound. There are a lot of layers of dead skin to slough off in the next few days, helped along by baths. We can't scrub his skin, because it is not sturdy enough to do that. Once the dead skin comes off, we will be able to see if the area underneath is okay or not. An open wound that could heal in a few days or weeks for a neurotypical person, can take months for Mason, because his paralysis means his nerves don't function right. He can't feel anything from pretty much the hips down. That means his body doesn't get all the messages it needs to know when it has healing/repair work to do. 

Tuesday was a normal homeschool day for us. Kids rotated through their subjects - math, language arts, science, and so on. There were a few bad attitudes to navigate, which is never my favorite, but we made it through the work of the day and into the afternoon hours where kids are free to explore their interests. Mason's swelling is present, but less, and the skin is not looking worse today, which is a hopeful sign. 

Favorite Games Currently: Bop It, Villainous: Disney, Castle Panic, Jumanjii

Wednesday's school morning felt peaceful. Each child cheerfully worked through their subjects. I always appreciate days like that. 

Thursday I could officially say it looks like Mason avoided any major pressure sores from his cast. While his skin is definitely worse for the wear, it is doing much better than it could be. It rained all day, but the kids are counting down to a few fun activities in the next bit, so they kept busy today cheerfully. (Coming activities include making buckeyes with Grandma, a fire pit dinner with smores, and a trip to the zoo). After dinner several kids painted peg dolls. 

Friday was the buckeye making with Grandma. It ended up being a bit of a comedy of errors, but chocolate and peanut butter taste good together regardless. We finished up the school week with a solid run of lessons. 

We can pet and feed stingrays at our zoo.

Saturday I did the usual errands, with unusual results. Our van, the only vehicle that fits our family, died while in line at the bank. We decided after a bit that it was most likely the alternator, and dropped it off in the lot at our favorite mechanic's shop, which was already closed. We knew they would call us Monday after they had a chance to look at it. That meant our planned Monday trip to the zoo had to be postponed to a later date.

We spent the evening outside roasting dinner and smores over a fire in the backyard. It was chilly and just the perfect weather for it!

Sunday, November 1st was family time, home church, and preparing for the school week. Restful.

Monday started with our typical homeschool work. Then we got the expected call from the mechanic - with unexpected drama. Sometime between late Saturday when we dropped off the van and early Monday, people snuck onto the mechanic's lot and cut parts off our van to the tune of several thousand dollars in parts. The police were called, and then it was lots of phone time with insurance companies to figure out what to do next. We are still working through that process, but in the end, our van will end up getting the repairs we put it in for, plus a lot of extra work. We are without our van for the week.

Lots of stingrays.

Tuesday and Wednesday were hard days in our not so little homeschool. Lots of grumpy kids, lots of complaining over school work, and lots of frustration. We got through it, and woke up Thursday to what felt like a whole new homeschool. Everyone was cheerful, worked willingly, and had fun together. Friday Tobias turned 5 years old, we had a normal school day, and we got word our van was ready to pick up the next day.

Saturday we picked up the van, picked up groceries, picked up library books, picked up monthly medications, baked a cake, baked monkey bread, made no-bake cookies, and then had our November family birthday party. This time the party was at my sister's house and we had 4 birthdays to celebrate: Tobias, Caleb, my niece Alyssa, and my sister, who all have November birthdays. 

Sunday, November 8th we rested, did home church, and had an online seminary activity with over 200 youth in the central Ohio area over Zoom. We also decided Monday would be the perfect day to make a trip to the zoo.

Mason's favorite animal - the red pandas.

It was a perfect zoo trip day. Warm weather and perfectly clear, sunny skies. We visited several areas of the zoo, fed and pet the stingrays, and saw a lot of animals. The zoo is doing a great job limiting the number of people coming in at a time, so we were able to stay distanced and mask free outside easily. Whenever we popped into a building we put on masks, per their requirements. 

One of the zoo highlights was that as we entered the new Zoo village a couple of keepers came out and asked if we wanted to see the three capybara brothers. They were moving them from their indoor to their outdoor habitat, and that involved walking them right through the public areas. They were the cutest big rodents!

Capybaras

The rest of this week has mysteriously disappeared, I forgot to take notes. 

Sunday, November 15th we had a quiet day with church at home. We played games, read books, and just had a rest day. 

Monday we dove into our last school week before Thanksgiving break. We had the usual lessons, a doctor's appointment, and a Zoom meeting with the college financial aid department for Makayla. 

Tuesday's highlight was baking muffins. We also reached the really exciting parts of our family read aloud, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. We've been working through this book for weeks, just listening over lunch or dinner. The kids are fully invested. The older couple have read the book before, so they are excited to watch the middle kids discover it all. The younger kids don't really pay attention, they are too busy eating. That's okay. 

Wednesday was spent on the phone setting up future medical appointments. We have things scheduled into July of 2021 for various people at this point. I finally ordered a wall calendar for 2021 and put all those appointments in. A couple of the boys took the current games up to the attic and traded them in for different games. We've been playing a lot of games this week, including Clue, The Oregon Trail, Telestrations, Sequence, and Hi Ho Cherry O. 

This board game is more than 25 years old,
made by my grandfather. Now my kids get to play it too.

Thursday the kids started getting excited for Thanksgiving break. They decided they wanted to do a couple art projects that week, so we looked through our many files from the Deep Space Sparkle membership we had a few years ago. Between the 9 kids we'll be doing five different project (two per child):

• The Nutcracker - Drawing and coloring a nutcracker soldier.
• Gingerbread House - Draw a house, use glue mixed with white paint to draw the icing, then after it dries, color in the details with chalk pastels.
• Paper Mittens - Cut out large mittens, paint designs on them.
• Navajo Weavings - Sewing yarn through burlap, then using foam to cut shapes and dip in paint for printmaking on the burlap.
• Weaving with Yarn - Making cardboard looms and weaving yarn mats. 

Friday we started with a typical school morning. Right before history Grandma arrived for a surprise visit. We hung out for a bit, then she decided to join us for our history lesson. This lesson was the halfway mark in our history curriculum. 

Saturday Daddy started out with a work meeting. The kids played games. I ordered a new freezer, which will arrive in a couple of weeks. We spent the evening playing Telestrations as a family. 

Catching Up, Sort of - Late September to Late October

Late September: Sunday was still a very structured day of ice and elevating Mason's legs. We had church at home, which I love. Our lesson was about prophecies and restoration. 

Monday was the first day that really felt like our homeschool break week. Now that Mason was more than 72 hours out from surgery, it was time to see how much time he could spent sitting up without elevating his legs. His body did pretty well, lots of time sitting on the floor playing with Legos, some time sitting on the couch playing Go Fish or reading, some time in his wheelchair playing with thinking putty or other things at the table, and a few sessions laying with legs elevated. 

Fast forward a lot. . . keep going. . . almost there. . . 

Here we reach what I call the 'post surgery void'. It is the days and weeks where life continued on without any note taking. Fast forward almost six weeks and you reach today. Here is a recent family picture, only missing Makayla, who is away at college: 

My life is very full physically (lots of lifting Mason at 60+ pounds all day long, plus normal home life work) and very full mentally - lots of teaching with homeschooling a houseful of 9, alongside teaching seminary just after 6am every weekday to 11 teens over Zoom (I wish we were in person), the cooking and cleaning and the heart work of parenting a large family of always growing and changing children during a pandemic that has affected their daily life in major ways. I've hit my maximum capacity and moved well past it into overwhelm territory.  

There is no way I can juggle the varied needs of an extra large family alongside all of these good but hard work things. On my own, I would just lay on the floor and give up. It isn't possible to do everything I need to do. 

But God is amazing.

I see on a daily basis how God blesses and multiplies my efforts. He makes more time in my day, inspires me in my tasks, helps me understand things I need to learn, guides me to learn more quickly or work in a more organized way, and makes my limited hours of sleep enough. I fall into bed at night with not one shred of extra mental strength left. I'm emptied out. But when that alarm rings early in the dark hours of the morning I wake up with a song on my heart and a smile on my face. I'm so grateful. I am witnessing small miracles every single day in my life. 

Notes: Sept. 5th - 20th Field Trip, Surgeries

Saturday was spent chipping away at errands. An oil change on one vehicle. Grocery shopping. Fall/Winter clothes shopping for a couple kids. Birthday shopping for cousins. Library book pick up. In between we did a few of our usual chores - moving furniture and sweeping under it, changing the toys that are out downstairs with different toys from the attic, deep cleaning bathrooms, baking a treat (donuts), and on this day battling ants who were trying to invade the kitchen. The highlight of the day was finally finishing our read aloud of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. 

Sunday started with a lovely home church, with Joseph teaching the lesson. We also made a special dinner to drop off at a family from church who just had their first sweet baby. We played games as a family. I studied and prepared some seminary lessons for the coming week.

Monday was Labor Day. There was no seminary class and no homeschool today. The kids spent the morning outside with Daddy, enjoying the weather. While they did that, I prepared our next science unit, Geology from The Good and the Beautiful. I sorted papers from the first five weeks of our homeschool year, and printed things for this week's history lessons. Once the kids came back in, we made cards for Makayla, to go in a package we are mailing this week. 

Tuesday we got back to seminary and school work, with Daddy home an extra day because of Labor Day. This week is our last one for my Middle and Elementary science group in the Water and Our World unit. We've learned a lot, and so today the kids simply narrated about some of the things they enjoyed learning from the unit and made a notebooking page about that thing as well. We also peeked at the upcoming Geology unit, and changed the library book shelves to books that match the theme. Dinner was a couple of roast chickens, potatoes, carrots, and onions using one of the recipes from this month's Raddish Kit. It was delicious!

Wednesday it was back to just the kids and I at home. After seminary finished we started in on school work. A couple kids had writing assignments to work on, there was a lot of math, and we explored the height of the Persian empire in history. 

Thursday and Friday I really didn't take any notes. We learned. We played. We cleaned and cooked. 

Saturday we woke the kids at 6am for a family adventure. We drove a couple hours to visit the National Museum of the US Air Force. It is a giant museum full of planes, exhibits, history, and interactive opportunities. You are able to travel through the history of aviation and American military history, with areas from WWI, WWII, the Holocaust, Korea, Vietnam, Cold War, Presidential planes, Space flight, and more. It was so neat for all our ages! 

Sunday we rested. Church at home was the highlight, with a discussion of sharing the light of the gospel, being examples, and that Christ is the solution to all the world's problems.

Monday was a typical surgery week day where we try to get everyone and everything ready. Grocery shopping that was missed Saturday because of our field trip. A trip to the city to drop off Mason's wheelchair for an overhaul because new parts are in. Library trip. A trip to the local hospital lab for bloodwork for me (thyroid). Phone calls to specialists. Homeschooling. 

Tuesday we had a normal school morning. In the early afternoon Mason and I drove to the city to pick up his overhauled wheelchair. New wheels (bigger), new forks and casters (taller to accommodate the bigger wheel height), new seat cushion, new clothing guards, etc. We returned home to an easy dinner because I had put meatballs in the crock pot at lunch time, so all that was left to do was boil water for some pasta and pull out already cut crenshaw and honeydew melons. 

Wednesday we had absolutely nowhere to go. It was glorious. After teaching seminary we wandered through a leisurely school day. We studied the Maccabean revolt in history, as well as read another chapter in Slave Boy in Judea. We only have 4 chapters to go before we finish this book, and we have all enjoyed it. That means I also need to start looking at the read aloud possibilities for the next history unit. Each The Good and the Beautiful History year is divided into four units. Our next unit is a study of Ancient African history and Native American history. The high schoolers will also have some reading about modern African history.

Thursday was our final day to get done all the things before Mason's surgery. We also will have our first homeschool break week next week, so we finished up a lot of the materials we were working on. 

Friday Grandma came to take care of the kids at home while Mason and I spent 9am-5pm gone for surgery. He was a champ, even when I wasn't allowed to go into the OR with him for sedation due to COVID restrictions. He was especially loopy post-anesthesia, and very sleepy. 

Saturday we started figuring out post-op routines. To keep Mason's circulation and skin healthy we have to vary his position often (sitting, laying, laying on his side, etc) as well as doing the elevation and ice on his legs frequently for these first few days. He can't move himself from any position without help. Right now the routine rotates through laying/icing, sitting in his wheelchair and mobile (can do activities at a table from his chair too), sitting/elevating legs, sitting on the floor to play with Legos, and repeat with new activities. 

August 29th - September 4th Notes

Saturday the kids and I finally finished going through the bins of clothing in the attic, checking fall/winter wardrobes. It was a lot of work, as usual. Now we have a list of who wears what size, and who needs what items to fill out their wardrobe as the seasons change. Grocery shopping happened Saturday morning, too. We've got a meal plan with a mix of familiar and new recipes (from our Raddish Kids boxes). We're trying a bit of Thai food this week. I also had six different kids volunteer to bake the soft pretzels Raddish recipe this week. I'm putting an older kid in charge of it one day with some younger helpers. 

Sunday we had church at home, as usual. Daniel taught the lesson, which was about the power of remembering God. In the evening we went to my sister's house for the monthly extended family birthday party. This one was celebrating my nephew and my step dad, both of whom have August birthdays. 

Monday morning I was up at 5:15am, followed shortly by Joseph and Emma. We had our first Zoom based Seminary class for the school year. While I would love to have all of these youth in my home each morning for class, I am grateful the Lord inspired someone to create technology that makes meeting remotely possible for now. 

Our homeschool day went smoothly. So far the kids like having our schedule with a lighter load on Mondays (generally new math lessons, science, and literature/reading). I like it too! Because my husband is home on Mondays, we are able to do appointments (today Mason had a video appointment with his dermatologist), errands, extra chores, or extra fun. In the afternoon we gathered on the floor in the living room to play the card game Capture. 

Tuesday was September 1st, which, for Harry Potter fans, is significant because at 11:00am on September 1st the train leaves for Hogwarts each year. I surprised the kids with a short school day followed by cooking Harry Potter themed foods and watching the second movie. We made butterbeer fudge, chocolate fudge, pumpkin pasties, apple pasties, and strawberry pasties, with a veggie platter 'from Professor Sprout's garden'. In the afternoon we had homemade butterbeer for a treat. It was a really simple day to put together, but the kids loved it. 

Wednesday we worked through school steadily all morning. Everyone likes or at least peacefully completes their lessons. We gathered in the living room midway through our morning for another chapter in our history read aloud. We had leftover fudge and pasties from yesterday to snack on while we read. Friends dropped off an entire bucket of tomatoes from their garden for us to enjoy. In the evening Caleb gathered a lot of us to play another card game - Guillotine. 

Thursday most kids started their school day with reading, then math. I sat at the table, helping as needed. For those unfamiliar with homeschooling a large family, here is how it works at my house most days. After breakfast is over, I sit at our very long dining room table. Kids gather around me to work, or go work on the floor, the couch, a bed, or just about anywhere else in the house. For many of the subjects I only help when asked, such as if a child needs me for a portion of a lesson in language arts, wants to discuss a book, has a math question, or needs me for sentence dictation. However, for some of my younger kids, I directly teach some subjects daily. I call each of these children one by one to do a lesson. If you aren't working with mom, you are working on independent things like reading for 20 minutes, practicing handwriting, or etc, or you are on break. Lessons I teach one on one:

• Language Arts for Samuel, Mason, and Caleb. (Oliver, Daniel, Emma, and Joseph each need me for some things in their language arts, but can do much independently.
• Math for Samuel and Mason. (Everyone else needs me on Monday for a new lesson, and for help here and there during the rest of the week.)

By 10am we are often ready for a snack and a group subject that I teach. Two days a week that group subject is science, three days a week it is history. (The high schoolers do a separate science from this middle and elementary science group, but are a part of the history group.) After an hour on this subject, kids can finish up any other school work they have left. 

Friday was school work, a visit from grandma, and the great pretzel baking day. The kids all loved the soft pretzel recipe from our Raddish kit that Emma and Mason baked recently, so today they all worked together in the kitchen to bake a quadruple batch for dinner. We also video chatted with Makayla, which is always fun. 

August 16th - August 28th Notes

Sunday morning we had a simple breakfast before home church. Today we discussed Alma chapters 53-63, then watched a cute stop motion animation with Legos that went over those chapters. Lunch was bacon and pancakes. In the afternoon we video chatted with Makayla. Then we meal planned as a family, with all the kids choosing a dinner or treat to help cook this week. Dinner tonight was Oliver's project. He made a recipe from our most recent Raddish Kids box - Pizza Pockets. They were yummy! In the evening we had a family movie. 

Monday morning I was out the door just after 6am to grocery shop, not having done that on Saturday because we were taking Makayla to college. Two stores later I had nearly everything on my list, and I scored a good deal on ground beef. By the time I returned home my husband had kids up, fed, and moving around doing their morning tasks. I sat at the table and taught 7 math lessons, one after another. Any kids waiting for their lesson turn worked on other tasks (independent reading, chores, etc). At 10am I pulled the 7th grade and under kids in for science. Today we read about two famous waterfalls, read a few questions and answers from our Q&A book, and did a lesson on different bodies of water. After exploring what identified different water features the kids all pulled out playdough and construction paper and built bodies of water as I called them out. Rebekah and Tobias loved participating in this part of the lesson. We also read about the Alaskan Gold Rush and the Yukon River mapping project that resulted, discussed why it was important, and why even today it has to be rechecked and adjusted each year (tides, currents, erosion, storms, and so on and their affect on the mouth of the Yukon River floor and sandbars). After this group, I went over Chemistry with Joseph and Emma. The rest of the day was spent cooking, playing, crafting, drawing, and enjoying family time. 

Tuesday was a simple homeschool day. We followed our routines and everything was done by lunch. In science for the elementary/middle school kids we studied the effects of weathering and erosion. In the early afternoon Emma and Mason made soft pretzels with another Raddish Kids recipe. They were easy and delicious! Joseph cooked dinner - chicken tacos. He cooked chicken in the Instant Pot, rice in the rice cooker, then prepped things like chopping lettuce, plucking grapes, etc. A few people decided to add Caesar dressing for a repeat of our Chicken Caesar Wraps from an earlier Raddish Kids box. 

In the evening I started printing a new piano course - Broadway in a Breeze. We have been without piano lessons for a good while now, as our teacher needed to stop before COVID even began. Joseph and Daniel have stayed diligent at continuing to learn piano. One program we were introduced to during piano lessons was Hymns in a Hurry. The musical notation he uses makes it easy to begin playing songs with chords within a day, and it's been something we enjoy. Dr. Kelly has released several other piano programs in the same notation, from Primary Songs in a Hurry and Pop Songs in a Hurry, to the newest release, Broadway in a Breeze. This one has several songs from The Greatest Showman, among other things. Joseph and I have both been playing them.

Wednesday we started with language arts lessons, then math, reading, and history. Today's topic in history was the Phoenicians, including their shipbuilding, purple dye, and trade. We also read another chapter in Slave Boy in Judea. The kids are enjoying the story, and so am I. 

In the early afternoon we headed outside to enjoy a buggy but not as hot day for an hour. Then we came in and the kids wanted to watch The Greatest Showman, after hearing Joseph playing some of the music. Emma took a break from watching the movie to mix up a meatloaf, put it in the oven, and toss some potatoes in the Instant Pot for dinner. It was the recipe she chose to make this week, and her first attempt at meatloaf - which she found to be a disgusting mixing process.

Thursday morning kids alternated between regular homeschool work and observing the construction of a wheelchair ramp on the front of the house for Mason. I am sure you can guess which lessons will be more memorable 5 years from now! A husband and wife team did the construction, working steadily all day. Grandma came to visit for a bit before dinner, and then after dinner we changed out the toys that are available downstairs. 

Friday the construction continued, as did the homeschooling. One thing I love about homeschooling is there is no hurry. We can do our work steadily through the morning, or take breaks after every single subject and spread things out through the whole day. Even better, my kids can each do what works best for them. I have one child who asked not to be woken up at 7am. They are fine with getting a later start with their work and doing things later than the other kids. I have another who is often doing their first subject by 7:30am. This evening we also did meal planning. While last week kids chose meals and helped cook pretty much every dinner, this week I chose new meals and will just call on helpers as needed. We're trying some new meals, and sticking with some old favorites too. 

Saturday we got back to our regular grocery shopping day. We also started pulling bins of clothing from the attic, going through what we have, and seeing what may need bought as the seasons change. We made it through four kids: Rebekah, Oliver, Daniel, Emma. 

Sunday our morning started with church at home. For our lesson, we did an activity the related to one of the verses from our Book of Mormon scripture study this week, Helaman 5:12:

"And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the ^arock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your ^bfoundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty ^cstorm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall."

We had a box of Duplos and a box of cards and kids divided into two groups. Half built a house with the blocks, half built with cards - or tried to. We discovered it took very little wind or movement to cause the card houses to come tumbling down. After the first round, teams switched building materials. We had some good discussion about foundations, buildings, and the storms of life. We sang a fun Primary song with hand motions with the little kids about the Wise Man and the Foolish Man, which comes from Matthew 7:24-27 in the Bible. 

Dinner tonight was new, and a hit. We made cheeseburger sliders with this recipe. It was delicious. The only thing we did differently is use a vegan mayo, because of Joseph's egg allergy. We also video chatted with Makayla, which we do pretty much every day or two. She starts classes on Monday and will have a full course load (19 credits), be a TA (teacher's assistant), and is excited for it all. 

Monday morning was full of math lessons. Samuel was working with yards, feet, and inches, going through the house measuring things and people. Mason learned to multiply by 4. Caleb learned to divide by 3s and 5s. Oliver worked with decimals. Daniel was factoring equations. Emma and Joseph were working with angles and drawing angles in geometry. 

Our construction crew returned to pour concrete, which was very entertaining for the kids. We are getting closer to a completed wheelchair ramp. 

Tuesday is one of Daddy's long days at work. Okay, so all of them are long. (3:30am-6:30pm or later) The homeschool morning kicked off on a bit of a slower start, with kids not rolling out of bed until 7am or later. Everyone ate breakfast, did morning chores, and got to work. Mid-morning our construction crew returned to remove wood molds from the concrete and attach the small metal ramp we need on the enclosed porch to our door. 

In meal planning last weekend, I was kind to myself. Tuesday always seems like an extra long day, being the first day of the week Daddy is back to work. I planned super simple meals. Lunch was sandwiches or leftovers. Dinner was pita pizzas - which are easy. I toss a bunch of pitas on big baking sheets and kids come add their own toppings. A few minutes in the oven and dinner is ready. 

Several of the boys have been creating characters for their Hero Kids game. They draw the characters, create their information card with abilities, defenses, etc, and make a paper figure for the game board. It is interesting to see their creations.

Wednesday morning I was happily surprised to hear Caleb cheering when he realized it was a history day. We do science Mon/Tues and history Wed/Thur/Fri. He was excited to hear the next chapter in our read aloud to find out what would happen next with Madoc the slave boy. It was a great chapter and the kids are fully invested in what is happening. They are also finding it interesting to see what civilizations were in power during different events in biblical history, as we cross over some of that with Mesopotamia, Assyria, and Babylon. 

The morning sped away helping kids with various lessons, as usual. I pretty much don't look up from helping until lunch time. Today our house smelled wonderfully because of my older kids. I love having older kids, because they bake! My 15yo son made four loaves of banana bread. The 14yo daughter, who loves all things Lord of the Rings, made a double batch of Lembas bread. The 12yo was dinner chef, and made cinnamon rolls from scratch.

Thursday breakfast was leftover cinnamon rolls and banana bread. School happened slow and steady through the morning. We have been slowly listening to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban over lunch and we are close to the end of the book. Mason is discovering it all for the first time, and it has been so fun to watch as the story unfolds. Our afternoon had a quick library pick up and then some robot drawing using Ralph Masiello's Robot Drawing Book as inspiration. Dinner was a new recipe - orange chicken and rice. I breaded and fried chunks of chicken breast in oil, made an orange sauce, and used my handy rice cooker to make 8 cups of rice. Dinner was delicious! 

Friday dawned cloudy but kids were cheerful. We read another chapter in Slave Boy in Judea for history and the kids gathered around the table to notebook about some of the history topics we've studied recently. Today kids wrote/illustrated about the Neo-Babylonian empire, the wall of Babylon, the Ishtar gate, the hanging gardens, King Nebuchadnezzar II's rule, the destruction of Jerusalem, the temple of Solomon, and the captivity of the Hebrews, among other things. 

It is almost lunch time, so I'm going to hit publish and go enjoy our Friday.

August 8th-15th Notes

Saturday the kids kicked off the day with their Saturday morning video game time. I spent 2 hours in an online training for seminary teachers. In the afternoon I took the kids outside to play when our new refrigerator arrived. We have been down to one fridge for a long while, and it is difficult to fit food and milk for 12 people in a single small fridge. We saved up cash and then COVID hit and caused delays production of the model that was the right size to fit the space we had in this old house. We finally got the fridge today!

Sunday was a peaceful home church day with Samuel helping teach the lesson. In the evening we had a small family get together as a goodbye Makayla party, before she heads back to college next week. We also surprised my husband with a cake celebrating his college achievement. He just finished his associate degree and a certificate this summer, after a lot of hard work one or two classes at a time over the last several years. It was loud and fun.

Monday morning I was working on school with a few kids before 8am. Jason took the last 4 kids to the dentist for cleanings. I did our Monday homeschool work with the rest of the kids, then finished up working with the gone to the dentist kids. In the late afternoon I was able to go grocery shopping, now that we had a fridge ready. It was a hot day, but it was nice to get shopping done. In the evening I worked on my own class for seminary training. 

Tuesday everyone woke and rolled into the school morning after breakfast. It was a smooth and easy day. I spend most of the morning working with one child or another - or a group of children. Friends from church brought more veggies over from their garden. This time we found potatoes, tomatoes, onions, and more in the box. We mashed half the potatoes to go with meatloaf for dinner, which was delicious. 

Wednesday is notable because several kids decided to get into dress up costumes on and off throughout the day. You never knew who would come to the table when you called for a child. Would it be a ninja, a prince, a dragon, or an astronaut? 

Dinner was made by Daniel tonight. He chose to try a new recipe from a Raddish box - Spanikopita Bites. We are still pretty new to using our Raddish kits, and have yet to remember that while we have a much larger family than the recipes are set up for, we don't know if many people will like the new recipes, so making the recipe the regular size might be good sometimes. Ha! The spanikopita had a filling of feta, parmesan, ricotta, and spinach. Halfway through our plan for a doubled recipe we decided to make a sweet dessert with half the fillo dough. We mixed up sugar, honey, and cinnamon and drizzled it on the dough before folding it up. Some kids preferred the sweet version, some preferred the savory version, and some preferred a bowl of cereal - after trying both versions of spanikopita.

Thursday and Friday were our last two days with Makayla before she went back to college. Homeschool still happened in the morning, as well as helping with packing and prep. We got Mason's triple surgery scheduled for mid-September. There were last meals together, tears, and secret card projects. Friday evening we loaded the van with her boxes and bags. 

Saturday the morning alarm rang at 4:30am and my husband, Makayla, and I got up, ate breakfast, and started driving. Grandma held down the fort at home, with the other nine children. They love when she's the one in charge. Our drive was rainy, but had little traffic for most of it. We made it to Makayla's new dorm at 12:00pm and spent a couple hours helping her get unpacked, hit the local WalMart for groceries for her dorm, and built a shelving unit. At 3:00pm it was hugs goodbye and Jason and I drove back home through more rain, arriving at 10:00pm.

July 27th - Aug. 7: Last week of summer, First week of Homeschool Year

Monday one of my husband's sisters was able to visit most of the day. She has come in from Utah and around the other things she needs to get accomplished here, she is spending time with us. On this day she brought her longbow for the kids to try some archery in the morning, then came back later in the afternoon and stayed for dinner, along with doing some painting crafts with the kids. 

Tuesday was project day for me. In between the usual mom life I sorted bins of our science, art, craft, homeschool supplies, and games. We are trying to rearrange the dining room shelves where our homeschool materials are kept, to be a bit more user friendly for the school year. 

In the evening I worked on printing and preparing history and science materials for first semester. We will begin our year with the Water and Our World science unit from The Good and the Beautiful for my 7th grade and under group of boys. The whole family will do The Good and the Beautiful History Year 3 together. 

Wednesday we kicked off the morning with a quick breakfast and then headed outside to play before it heated up. I just realized I forgot to record a tender mercy from last week, so I'm remedying that now. You see, we own one bike. It's an adult bike that was given to us several years ago when Joseph needed to learn to ride during scouts. We're not a biking family and simply have never had bikes for our kids. Fast forward several years to now. Only my oldest 3 children can ride a bike. We still do not have small or medium size bikes for younger kids to learn on. And we don't want to spend money on them, either, because our money has other priorities for our large family. This was fine, until Daniel decided he really wanted to learn to ride a bike this year. Then the pandemic hit, and all money has been designated 'let's survive the crazy economy' money. So no bike. Until one random day last week, when a church member who has no children, stopped by our house with a medium sized bike in hand, asking if we wanted it. Another church family's children had outgrown the bike and given it to him, as he was collecting some scrap metal from them. He thought of us, and just like that, the prayer my son had been praying for some time was answered. We had a bike he could fit. In the last few days three boys have learned to ride that bike down the rutted, rocky alley by our house. 

Wednesday the kids also helped me move things to the attic, sort a few shelves of school materials, and  do a bit of baking. 

Thursday was a cloudy day, very gray and dreary, even with little rain. The kids spent the morning enjoying their last visit from Aunt Danielle. In the afternoon I sat down with each child's school books and read the first week's lessons, making notes of any supplies we need for activities or experiments. Kids chose folders for their science and history notebooks and added name labels. Of course, Rebekah and Tobias want their own 'school folders' like the big kids, so we have a stack of 18 folders ready to go. 

We kicked off Friday morning in the kitchen baking a couple of cakes. We don't have another birthday in this house until October, but we decided to celebrate Harry Potter's birthday. It is our final Friday of summer break, and we are on the third book in the Harry Potter series as a read aloud. We've listened to these books all summer. It just seemed like the perfect way to close out our summer.

Saturday was a whirl of small things. I was out the door early to grocery shop, then home for breakfast and unloading. Next was a trip to the UPS store, the library drive thru, and then a long drive to IKEA with Makayla. The evening was family time and final printing and organizing of school things, including the weekly assignment sheets. 

Sunday we had a sweet home church where Caleb helped teach the lesson. He did a great job helping us learn about the Atonement, repentance, and challenged everyone to team up and find scriptures about repentance, then bring them back to share. 

In the afternoon we played games together - Would You Rather Harry Potter and then Harry Potter Uno.

Monday was our first day of homeschool for the year, so of course Mason and I were gone for 3.5 hours at a surgeon's appointment. Before we left at 8am I worked with a few kids who wanted to do some of their school early. While I was gone Daddy made sure kids got reading done. After I returned we did afternoon school. This is one thing I love about homeschooling! My kids can work when they are ready, we can be super flexible with our schedule, and we aren't locked into specific hours of the day for school work. 

The surgeon's appointment went well. We're waiting for a phone call to work with a scheduler because Mason's 24th, 25th, and 26th surgeries are ready to be done. All 3 will happen in one day, just 3 separate sites (right femur, left tibia, and left tendon on his heel). We've been expecting these for a while, so no surprises. 

In the afternoon my husband got 4 steroid shots after a check in with one of his surgeons. (Both elbows and the knee he has not had surgery on.) We are hoping not to have a repeat of 5 months off after surgeries like he had last year when he had shoulder and knee surgery, but are not sure exactly what is going on in these joints.

Tuesday was day two of the homeschool year. It was much slower than usual because I had to orient 7 kids in their new language arts courses from The Good and the Beautiful. I've got kids doing level 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, and 7. It went smoothly, just slower than things will go once we are all into our new routines. Emma also had an orthodontist appointment, which took an hour out of our morning. By the time all subjects were done by all children it was nearly 4pm (with a solid 1 hour break for the orthodontist in the morning, and a 2.5 hour break for lunch and afternoon medical care). Not all kids were working all of that time, some of it they were waiting around for their turn to work one on one with me, or they were already finished with all individual work and waiting for our afternoon science lesson. 

Wednesday was the first day that felt like a normal school day, with no appointments, and lots of smooth movement from lesson to lesson and student to student. Even though I had 7 students last year, this year of 7 students takes more of me working one on one. Those choices were made on purpose, and will be a positive in our year, but we are still figuring out the best way to have things run smoothly. Here's what I mean:

I need to teach one on one math lessons once a week for Caleb, Oliver, Daniel, Emma, and Joseph. The rest of the week they practice the new skill and review old, only asking for help when needed. They use Math U See curricula. I need to teach five one on one math lessons a week for Mason and Samuel (total of 10 lessons). They use The Good and the Beautiful Math curricula.

I need to teach five one on one language arts lessons a week for Caleb, Mason, and Samuel (15 lessons). The older 4 children need me for small parts of their daily language arts, typically 5-10 minutes each. Everyone is using various levels of The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts.

I do speech therapy with Tobias daily. I read aloud to Tobias and Rebekah, and do some preschool-ish play.

I teach two science lessons to the group of Daniel, Oliver, Caleb, Mason, Samuel. Tobias and Rebekah usually join us, this has a lot of hands on fun they like. This group is using The Good and the Beautiful science units. I review science with Joseph and Emma once a week, or as needed. They are using Exploring the World of Chemistry by John Tiner this semester.

I teach two history lessons a week to the entire group of kids, Joseph, Emma, Daniel, Oliver, Caleb, Mason, Samuel, with Tobias and Rebekah often joining. Then we add in a third day of history for notebooking about what they've learned. We are using The Good and the Beautiful History Year 3 because we've loved Year 1 and 2.  

We have a family read aloud going, currently Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

We have a history read aloud going, currently Slave Boy in Judea. 

I read on my own and then meet with Joseph and Emma to discuss our current Boomerang Book Club title: Emma by Jane Austen. 

Joseph and Emma chose to do a Culinary Arts and Nutrition elective this year. That is being integrated into daily life, lots meal planning, grocery shopping, and cooking.

I oversee piano lessons for the kids still doing piano. Even though they play better than I do, I'm able to read music and help figure things out, or just be a listening ear. I also work on my own piano practice when I can squeeze it in. 

We do family scripture study daily. Currently we are 322 pages into The Book of Mormon, in Alma chapter 46. This puts us a bit ahead of where I'll start out at the end of this month teaching daily seminary lessons (Mon-Fri at 6am) with nine teens from church. 

As you can see, it is all totally doable, it just takes a bit of time to get into smooth routines. 

Thursday was another day of learning at home, followed by an afternoon outside. We loved the sunshine and slightly cooler afternoon temps. 

Our first Friday of the school year went great. Lots of reading, discussion, and notebooking. 

Notes for July 18th - July 24th

Saturday morning kicked off with a trip to the mechanic to drop off one vehicle in need of help with the air conditioner. I had a 2 hour training meeting for seminary. The kids played games. In the late afternoon we packed everyone up and headed to the pool to cool off (93F outside today). By the time we came home it was after dinner hour. Kids ate, Rebekah took a way too late nap, and I went grocery shopping. 

Sunday we had home church together as usual. We had a good lesson involving rocks, rice, and a jar, made a mess, and hopefully everyone got something out of it. In the afternoon we baked cinnamon rolls for dinner. 

Monday a couple people had dental cleanings during the morning. In the late afternoon we were able to pick up our car, with a working air conditioner. I worked on some more seminary training modules on CANVAS. We had a lot of family time in the evening. 

Tuesday my husband and my oldest were at work. The other 9 kids and I headed into the back yard right after breakfast for 7 haircuts. I don't enjoy cutting hair, it is itchy, messy, and takes a while to cut that many heads. But it saves money, and my kids don't mind my basic cutting skills. As the morning heated up we went back inside, showered everyone, and got to work on our daily charts. In the early afternoon Emma made magic cookie bars. I made the first trip inside our library since March and brought home a big stack of books, which ensured a peaceful hour for me when I got home, because kids grabbed books and snuggled down to read. 

Wednesday the magic of magnetic tiles was back. Kids were building ships and towers, making patterns on the side of the freezer, and exploring geometry with them. 

Thursday was a stormy day. I spent a chunk of the morning organizing school materials. That included putting science units in binders ready to use, checking page counts on books my teens and I will read and figuring out how many pages per week to read each book in its month, and starting to refresh myself on Geometry, since I haven't taught it since Makayla's high school years.

Friday is here at last! We've had a peaceful day with chores, projects, learning, and family time. I was going to publish this post, but for some reason I can't upload pictures. I'll try to figure that out this weekend.

 

Hmm, it is Monday and I've not been able to upload pictures without an error. As we are about to begin school (1 week!) and there are a lot of other things going on, like a visit from an out of state aunt this week, I'm just going to hit publish with no pictures for this post. Happy Monday everyone!

Notes for July 13th - July 17th

I caught this cute picture of Rebekah on Thursday,
 napping on the couch.
She loves her copy of the Book of Mormon
and spends time 'reading' her scriptures
every day. She also loves coloring them, hence
all the pens.

I left off with Monday, and will pick up there to share a bit about our afternoon and evening. We headed to my sister's house to let the husbands change the brakes on our car while we all visited. Five hours later we had played inside and out (trampoline!), eaten pizza, laughed, talked, and still didn't quite have those brakes done. The usual comedy of errors happened, where everything that could go wrong, probably did. It was just one of those things that happens when working on vehicles. 

Tuesday morning the kids slept in. It's very unusual for all of my kids to sleep past 6:30am, but as I type this note it is 7:45am and the only child who woke up was the one with an alarm who needed out the door at 7am for work. I spent the quiet time reading and sweeping. Kids got up and did their morning tasks. Emma mowed the yard. There was a fair amount of playing with hot wheels cars and blocks, piano practice, and reading books. It was a good day.

Wednesday the kids spent a lot of their energy pestering one another. It was a long day. 

Thursday kids worked with me on a few organizing projects when we realized someone was on our enclosed porch overnight and stole some of my family's shoes. As in, two of my kids now have NO shoes, and one pair of my husband's shoes were left outside on the grass by whoever was on our porch. We moved the shoe racks into the house, and are trying to find places to put the few other things that are currently on the porch. It was frustrating. Now I have to get to the store when my husband is home and guess at what shoes will fit these two kids, because they can't go in a store without shoes. 

I also got to begin learning about something new for me. Last Sunday I was called to be an early morning seminary teacher! For those unfamiliar with the term, high school age youth in our church have the opportunity to attend a scripture study class every weekday morning during the school year, with a teacher and other youth. They read and study the scriptures together. By the end of their high school career the students have read (and studied!) the entire Bible, the Book of Mormon, and the Doctrine and Covenants. They have discussed how to apply the gospel to their everyday challenges and life. They have memorized scripture. Laughed together. Learned together. COVID-19 makes for an interesting beginning to our seminary year. We will use Zoom to meet each morning before school for 40 minutes, instead of meeting in my home. From August through December we will study the second half of the Book of Mormon. Beginning in January, we will move to studying the Doctrine and Covenants and Church History. (The four year rotation is Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants/Church History.)

Friday my mom came over for the morning just to play with the kids and visit. We all had a fun time. My mom is one of those grandmas you always want your kids to have - she gets on the floor to build Lego with them, says yes to board games and card games, and even sometimes brings donuts (they were delicious this morning). 

Notes for June 27th - July 13th

Tobias and Rebekah love

playing with the math

blocks.

Saturday's plan was simply to be home. Jason was recovering from surgery and split his time between doing school from the bed upstairs to sitting on the couch with his leg elevated to visit with the kids. We had easy meals. Breakfast was toast or oatmeal. Lunch was quesadillas, rice, watermelon, and grapes. Dinner was shredded pork sandwiches, which meant the meat roasted in the crock pot all day. I added in some potato wedges and leftover fruit. 

Sunday began with our home church time. We sing hymns, pray, partake of the sacrament, and then do some sort of lesson. This week was a "Who Am I?" game. Each person had a card with descriptions of a person from the book of Alma in the Book of Mormon. They read it aloud and we all tried to guess who they were. Most of the people were from chapters we have already studied in our family scripture study. A few were from upcoming chapters. 

In the afternoon we baked cinnamon rolls, played a round of Hedbanz, and just relaxed together. 

Monday kicked off a 90F week. Makayla worked on the farm. I picked up a prescription at the pharmacy, grabbed some meat that was on clearance, and restocked fruits and veggies for the week. Jason spent 6 hours on his surgery check up. There was an hour drive each way, a 20 minute ultrasound, and then hours and hours of waiting for the doctor, who he saw for less than 5 minutes. He has to go back next week to get another ultrasound and have stitches removed. Then a check up in 2 months. At that check up he's able to schedule the next surgery, for his other leg. 

After lunch Joseph, Daniel, Oliver, and Caleb spent a couple hours playing Monopoly Cheater's Edition. It takes forever to play a good game of Monopoly, and the Cheater's Edition gets pretty hilarious. Some of my kids are great at it, while others always get caught on their cheats. The best part was when I stopped by the table to see how the game was going. I grabbed all the $500 bills from the bank during Caleb's turn. When the turn moved to Daniel, I announced my cheat - and that they hadn't caught me. I was now the richest player in the game. Even though I wasn't playing. In the end, I returned the bank money and they continued their game. 

Dinner tonight was fried chicken and roasted corn on the cob. It was delicious! In the evening I started preparing our yearly homeschool notification paperwork. 

 Tuesday I took a couple quick pictures while the kids did their summer learning routine. Each week the kids read daily, write once, and do math practice. Their reading varies widely - from picture books to nonfiction to chapter books. Some have specific plans, like reading the Narnia series, while others decide what their next book will be when they finish the current read. We also have a family read aloud going. Through the first three months of quarantine that was a series by James Conti: Framed!, Vanished!, Trapped!. Now we are reading aloud Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. I haven't decided what our next read aloud will be. 

Dinner was BBQ pork ribs in the instant pot, with apples and baked potatoes on the side. The pork ribs are an unusual meat for us. These happened to be country style (boneless) and on clearance for $2.40/lb. They were delicious, and we have enough left over to toss on salads or in quesadillas later this week. 

 Wednesday I spent time researching places and resources for funding and building a wheelchair ramp on the house. It's a lot of phone calls, emails, and waiting around to hear from places. It's complicated. 

Thursday I also had some phone time because it is yet again time to schedule 11 dental cleanings. It is always an event to figure out how many people they will see at once, and fit it all in with our schedule. The day was pretty typical for quarantine life, quiet and at home. 

Friday is here. We had one ramp evaluation today. It's not cheap (over $8,000) but it also isn't a wood ramp. This company focuses on modular metal ramps. Now we need bids from two more companies. 

I don't have notes for the weekend, but it was pretty much family time at home, playing in the hot back yard while daddy power washed the house, and home church. 

Monday Daddy had a checkup at the surgeon's office. Healing is going well so far. We took the 9 younger kids swimming at the YMCA outdoor pool. They have a limit on how many people can be there at each two hour swim session, so it wasn't super full. That helps a lot, because we have a lot of non-swimmers, and need to keep an eye on them, physically help Mason, and try to teach kids to float and swim. I'm tired! Kids are tired! It was great!

Tuesday we woke to thunderstorms and heavy rain. It was a stay inside and play kind of day, with thunderstorms on and off all day. Pokémon battles were the main game of choice. 

Wednesday through Friday were spent planning, preparing, and getting things organized for the coming homeschool year. We will be starting back to school the first week of August. We also did a lot of playing games, reading, and family time on these days. A few kids made projects with Lego. The younger kids spent a lot of time pretending with Little People sets we've had for a decade or more. 

Saturday was Samuel's 7th birthday. He woke up happy to open his presents and enjoy them. We also spent part of the morning on a new family adventure.

 We bought a Raddish Kids subscription, a cooking subscription for kids. 

This first box's theme was Ticket to Tokyo. 

We divided the kids into groups and each group prepared and cooked one of the three recipes. 

We made Yakisoba noodles (delicious - the favorite recipe from this box), Teriyaki chicken skewers (also yum!), and sushi (an adventure for sure). 

After an hour and a half of prep and cooking we sat down together as a family with chopsticks and our new foods. 

It was so much fun, but a lot of work and dishes. 

I think next month we will spread out preparing recipes over a few days or weeks.

 In the evening we went swimming at the YMCA outdoor pool again. 

We ended up making double of each recipe, if you were wondering. 

Sunday morning began with church at home. Then Emma and I baked 96 chocolate cupcakes for Samuel's birthday party. Emma, Daniel, and Oliver piped on the frosting, then Samuel added the sprinkles. We had the party that evening and you could see Samuel's joy that it was finally his birthday. My kids are now 2, 4, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 14, 15, and 19 - until October, when we start the chain of 8 kid's birthdays in 5 months. 

Monday we made plans to visit my sister's family. The husbands were replacing brakes on our car, then pizza night together.

June Summer Reading

Image Source

Reading is something that happens year round at my house. Even in the summer, kids are expected to pick up a book and read for at least 20 minutes a day. Beyond that, you will often find my kids reading to learn about things they are interested in, reading for pleasure, and listening to audio books. Every evening the kids go to bed at 8pm, but have an hour with book lights to read or draw if they wish. They read a lot, and reread favorites regularly. I decided to jot down the books being read during the month of June by the kids. This time I'm including the picture books and library books we read. I know I've missed a bunch of those because the boys take up a basket of books each evening. The list does not include my own personal reading.

Chapter Books (Finished or in progress) 

• The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe
• The Hobbit
• The Fellowship of the Ring
• The Two Towers
• The Return of the King
• The Ruins of Gorlan
• Who Was Thomas Alva Edison?
• What Was Ellis Island?
  
• Who Was Leonardo Da Vinci?
• Mercy Watson to the Rescue
• Gregor the Overlander
• Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane
• The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma
• The Sea of Monsters
• The Titan's Curse
• The Battle of the Labyrinth
• The Mouse and the Motorcycle
• Runaway Ralph
• Red Rope of Fate
• Royal Magic
  
• Who's Your Hero? Volume 1-3
• Flat Stanley
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
• The Throne of Fire
  

Books from The Good and the Beautiful Library

• Mr. Apple's Family
• Luke's Adventure
• Lily's Pumpkins
• Ted and Tom and the Tall Tall Peak
• Blake the Brave
• Jack and the Lost Maze
• Jane and the King
• Summer on the North Star
• Number Eleven Poplar Street
  

Other books

• How to Knit a Monster
• The Little Green Girl
• The Bold, Brave Bunny
• Monster Motel
• The Little Island
• Sonya's Chickens
• Hippopotamister
• Policeman Small
• Chicken Chickens
• The Trouble with Time Travel
• Red Panda's Candy Apples
• Dough Knights and Dragons
• Edgar Allen Poe's Pie
• City Chickens
• Bear Came Along
• My Pet Wants a Pet
• Finders Keepers
• The Beginner's Guide to Fashion Design Studio
• Please Don't Eat Me
• Home in the Woods
• Bats at the Library
• The Hundred Year Barn
• Boxitects
• Anna at the Art Museum
• A Computer Called Katherine
• Hawkeye Comics #1-3
• The Friend Magazine
• The New Era Magazine
  
• The Sherlock Holmes Book (by DK Publishing)
• Several Childcraft Volumes
• Story Path
• Zootopia: The Big Case
• I Spy: Picture Riddle Books
• Insectlopedia
• 5 Minute Mickey Mouse Stories
• 5 Minute Star Wars Stories
  
• Lovely Beasts: The Surprising Truth
• Desert Giant
• The Magic School Bus Blows Its Top
• The Magic School Bus In the Rainforest
• What Should Danny Do? 
• What Should Darla Do?
• How Things Work: Inside Out
• New Testament Stories
• Old Testament Stories
• Book of Mormon Stories
• Doctrine and Covenants Stories
• Eyewitness: Vote
• Squeak
• Bunny's Book Club
• Last Stop on Market Street
• The 7th Garfield Treasury
  

June 13th-26th: Zoo, Doctors, Drawing, and Surgery

Saturday started out raining. We had reservations for our zoo's reopening weekend, so we loaded up the van, added ponchos, and had a great visit! The animals were pretty active. We got to see the baby polar bear and baby gorilla, river otters, the orangutan. We even got a sneak peek of the seals and sea lions in the not-yet-opened Adventure Cove. In the afternoon I did meal planning for the week. We are often very repetitive in the meals we eat, the same recipes on repeat. Is it like that at your house? I'll be honest, I cook because if I didn't the natives would turn cannibal. It is not my favorite activity, probably because it takes so much time to prepare, cook, and clean up, compared to how quickly the food is devoured. Remember, I'm feeding 12 people, so the quantities of food I prep are big. This week's lunches and dinners are:

• pancakes and waffles (giant recipe that gives us extra to freeze for breakfasts)
• fried polish sausage, roasted potatoes and beets, and green beans
• grilled hot dogs and hamburgers, salad, fries, strawberries
• homemade pizza rolls (like cinnamon rolls, but savory)
• sandwiches, tater tots, grapes
• chicken taco tuesday and rice
• macaroni and cheese, salad, cucumbers, pears
• homemade cinnamon rolls
• leftovers for lunch (gotta clean out that fridge!)
• Italian chicken, rice, corn
• spaghetti and meatballs, salad
• Scones (flavor undecided)
• Bean with bacon soup and biscuits
• Leftovers for dinner (cleaning out the fridge again)
  

Sunday morning I woke up to make strawberry shortcake for breakfast. I made sweet scones, chopped strawberries, and added whipped cream on top. Our neighbors had a tree company arrive to trim a tree that hangs over their garage from our yard. The kids had fun watching and we ended up having them remove a small tree while they were here trimming. It made for a noisy accompaniment during our home church. 

In the evening we picked back up on our Lego sorting project. We worked for an hour and I kept the sorted bins downstairs so that I can work on the project during the week. 

Monday was exciting because we were able to pick up our library holds for the first time in more than three months. Our library has a drive thru window and cars were lining up before it even opened. We have so many interesting new books to read! I also did our grocery shopping today, because Saturday I opted to skip shopping due to our zoo trip. 

In the afternoon I spent time sorting Legos with a couple kid helpers. We made pizza rolls (think cinnamon rolls, but with garlic butter, cheese, and pepperoni in place of the butter, cinnamon, and sugar) for dinner. In the evening we played in the backyard before shower time. 

Tuesday morning I started preparing the Math Level 1/2 Activity Box from The Good and the Beautiful, cutting, punching out pieces, and sorting into the labeled bags. Today Mason and Samuel did their first 'transition lesson'. We are moving these two boys from Math U See to TGTB Math in the fall. Over the rest of the summer we'll play with the games and do the transition lessons for each level so they are familiar with the programs. The current plan is to put Samuel in level 2 and Mason in level 3. Several of the bigger boys were fascinated with the tangrams in the box, so they joined in for some math play. 

While we were doing that, Tobias and Rebekah spent an hour playing with our math manipulative bin. It holds the math blocks from Math U See, a toy clock, dice, a deck of cards, calculator, solid shapes, etc. 

The kids were busy reading this morning, too. In the last week Emma has read The Fellowship of the Ring and is well into The Two Towers. It is so fun to see her dive into The Lord of the Rings! Joseph is working through the Chronicles of Narnia series. Oliver is 14 chapters into The Ruins of Gorlan, the first book in the Ranger's Apprentice series. Daniel just finished Ella Enchanted today. Mason is on book 17 of the Magic Tree House series, Tonight on the Titanic. Caleb read Jane and the King, one of the Gold Tales from The Good and the Beautiful. Samuel read Ted and Tom and the Tall, Tall Peak, also from TGTB. Tobias had me read Please Don't Eat Me to him. Rebekah went with her current favorite, Oliver's Tree. 

Wednesday was quiet. We watched the season finale of Wayne Brady's Comedy IQ on BYUtv. We played. Kids practiced piano. We read books. Just quiet quarantine summer life around here. 

Thursday I started prepping the house and the packed bags for Friday's day of appointments. Mason has Myelo Clinic every 6 months. He goes to Children's Hospital and sees on average 10 of his specialists in one day. He has updated x-rays and ultrasounds done. He has blood work. It's exhausting and an information overload. Often we come out with a heads up for coming surgery needs. While I spend the day with him, I also have a house full of kids at home. My mom comes to watch them. I prepare easy meal plans, and they enjoy time with grandma. 

The rest of Thursday was family time. Play. Projects. Reading. Listening to another chapter of our current read aloud - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. 

Friday Myelo Clinic went well. Mason's wheelchair needs growth adjustments made, which involve ordering new parts. His lab work and ultrasound results had no surprises, though it did take 3 attempts to get his labs drawn because his veins kept blowing. Emma finished reading the rest of the Lord of the Rings series and started The Hobbit.

Saturday was all family time and I didn't make any notes.

Sunday church at home and baking a lot of baking: scones for strawberry shortcake, cookies, and pizza. We had a family movie night this evening. 

Monday was a normal at home start to the week. Daddy focused on his final project preparations in his current online class. The kids read books, played, practiced math, wrote, drew, and played some more. In the late afternoon Mason and I made the hour drive to the wheelchair vendor to get measurements and parts ordered for his wheelchair growth upgrade. We've also set up an appointment at our house to see about getting a wheelchair ramp installed on the house so Mason can get in and out in his wheelchair. 

Tuesday Daddy was at work. I covered the table in drawing paper and put out freshly sharpened colored pencils in bowls. All the kids drew, doodled, wrote, and created on that paper. Pictures from that are sprinkled throughout this post. Sometimes the best way to get kids to do something is to simply make it available and ready to go. They didn't have to get out paper or track down colored pencils. They could just start. In the afternoon Emma and I baked Lembas Bread from The Lord of the Rings. It was yummy!

Wednesday's nature study moment was brought to us by a bird that flew into the living room window. We observed him for about half an hour, until he flew away. It has been a bird filled spring here. We've had four baby birds in our yard at various times (one blue jay, three robins). Our old outdoor cat just looks at them and lays down. 

Thursday Jason was off work and headed to the hospital to get lab work done and COVID-19 testing before his surgery day. Hours later, he made it home. I headed out to grocery shop. Once home, we prepped food for Friday, cleaned the house, and played Hedbanz as a family. 

Friday morning started at 3:30am when my alarm went off. At 4am my mom arrived to sleep on the couch, in case any kids woke up. I drove my husband to the hospital almost an hour away and dropped him off, then came home. (Thanks COVID). My mom headed back to her house to work from home. The kids eventually woke up and Makayla headed to work at the farm. After breakfast, the kids and I watched Trolls the movie. The surgeon called to report on Jason's surgery (everything went well). Then eventually the nurse called to let me know I could head to the hospital to pick my husband up. My mom came back over to hang out with the kids for a couple hours while I got my husband, we stopped to fill his pain meds, and drove home. Now he's tucked in bed, the kids are playing, and I'm almost done with Mason's afternoon medical care. We plan to have a quiet weekend at home before my husband's surgery check up on Monday. 

June 6th - June 12th Notes

Rebekah grabs a timer and a book

to read most days. Why? Because

that is what she sees all her 

siblings do. Example is so

powerful!

Saturday was grocery shopping day. Our local stores are pretty well stocked at this point. There are random items still out of stock, or low. The stores all have purchasing limits on a variety of items. That makes it very difficult to buy enough food or supplies for a family of 12! A few examples I saw today:

• 1 pack of chicken, pork or beef at one store
• 2 packs of chicken, pork, or beef at two different stores
• Limit 2 on butter, milk
• Limit 1 on toilet paper 

A few other things from our day: the kids played their weekly 30 minutes of video games, my husband took an exam and worked on school work, my brother-in-law helped Jason recharge the A/C in the car, we cleaned the house, grilled burgers and hot dogs for lunch, and went through 2 lbs of strawberries, 2 lbs of grapes, a couple zuccinni, a green pepper, salad, 2 lbs of apples, 2 loaves of bread, a gallon of milk, 1 lb of pasta, a bag of chips, a bag of pretzels, 1/2 a jar of pickles, and part of a gallon of ice cream over the course of the day. 

Sunday we had home church in the morning. I'm really going to miss this when we are able to go back to church! Jason spent a chunk of the afternoon replacing the kitchen faucet. 

Monday morning Mason and I headed out the door at 8am for an hour drive to his eye surgeon's office and pick up his new glasses. They are the exact same style as his last ones, with slight different colors for the paint splatter design. Daddy held down the fort at home. 

Tuesday Grandma spent the morning with kids while Mason and I headed to the hospital for his yearly bone density check. He has osteopenia, which is osteoporosis for kids. Each year we check his bone density and do an IV infusion of medications to help. (In the beginning he did the infusions every 3 months.) After reading the DEXA scan today and comparing it to his prior numbers, we were able to skip the IV infusion this year. We are hoping that an every other year infusion will be enough to maintain his bone density until he is in his teens. 

The rest of Tuesday was pretty typical of our summer days. Family time. Play. Cooking. Cleaning. 

Wednesday was my 20th wedding anniversary. I've officially been married for more than half my life. For those who may be new, my husband and I have a bit of a fun story. We met when I was 18 and he was 21. Three weeks later we were engaged. It felt right, but looking back now as a mother, I can't imagine what I would have said if my daughter told me she was getting married to a guy she had only known for 3 weeks. Marriage is hard work, but it is so rewarding! 

My husband spent our anniversary working, while I held down the home fort. I decided it was also a great day to officially potty train my 10th child, Rebekah. Rebekah has been choosing to use the toilet pretty regularly for the last several months of quarantine. Sometimes her diaper is wet, sometimes it is dry. She is still wet overnight, so she will continue to wear a diaper to bed. But during the day she's now in underwear. We set a timer that rings every 45 minutes to remind us she needs to visit the bathroom. She does still need to learn to poop on the toilet, but she'll get there. End of Day 1 Potty Training Report: Rebekah had 2 pee accidents, and used the toilet the rest of the time.

Thursday we spent a couple hours outside in the morning enjoying cool weather. We moved inside as it warmed up and played games, read books, and just relaxed. Rebekah had one accident when she fell asleep for a nap. 

Friday started with taking Makayla (on her birthday! My oldest is 19!)to work because I needed a vehicle. Not too far into the morning was a dentist visit for Caleb to pull a baby molar that needed out. Rebekah informed me she doesn't want to use the potty today. Considering she's only a young 2, I'm okay with that. She's a really forceful girl, sure of her opinions, and a battle over the toilet isn't worth it right now. 

Right now it is early afternoon and the kids are playing Minecraft together. I've got a special dinner request to put together for the birthday girl, so I'm hitting publish on this post.