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.