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.