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.