Aug 23 - Aug 28: Break Week and Life Lessons

Random photo on my phone for
dog appreciation day - no real dogs here
thanks to allergies, but lots of 
stuffed animals.

Monday kicked off with our first day of seminary for the school year. At 6:10am I was surrounded by teens who make the time to show up each morning before school to study the scriptures together. It is so neat to be a part of this! After they headed to school at 7am the rest of my kids started drifting downstairs, ready for our school break. The plan for the week is to rest and do family time. One sad note, my grandmother passed away today. We love her and miss her, but know that she is no longer in pain and are grateful for that. We spent time sharing stories of her life with the kids all week.

In the late afternoon we took most of the kids to the movie theater to watch the new Paw Patrol movie. It was very fun to watch Rebekah experience the movie theater for the first time that she can remember. She was so enthusiastic!

Tuesday morning started with seminary, then breakfast. We opened a new game, The Bears and the Bees, from Grandpa Beck Games. I love that it is easy enough for younger kids to play on some level due to the domino-type matching, but there are enough fun extras based on card type to challenge the whole family. Even better, there are two sets of rules, the family version and the expert version, so you can choose just how challenging the game will be. Between the nine kids the morning was filled with toys, coloring, painting, reading books, chores, writing, art projects, and Lego building. I managed some game playing, reading, bill paying, lesson planning, and dishes. 

Wednesday was hot with a quick thunderstorm mixed in. A couple of my boys wanted to play The Bears and the Bees with me before breakfast, so that is what we did. It is a fun game and the lead changed several times before someone finally won a single round. We filled the day with the usual hubbub of life. A fun note - Joseph cooked scones for dinner, yum! In the evening the older four youth had activities at church.

A slug Emma noticed this week outside.

Thursday morning came dark and early for seminary, but we had a great discussion about the first 20 verses of Doctrine and Covenants section 93. The first request again today from several kids was to play a round of The Bears and the Bees, and Emma joined in so the younger kids took great delight in teaching her how to play. Another round happened in the afternoon with other kids. 

Friday was a hard day for everyone, as we attended the funeral of my grandmother. It was the first viewing and funeral for many of my children. We spent the week talking about what to expect, but there is only so much you can do to prepare. There were tears and smiles and sadness and lots of hugs. The rest of the day we just hunkered down at home to get back to some normal family time and let everyone decompress. 

Saturday we headed to the science center in the big city to explore new and old exhibits. New to us were two exhibits: Animation Academy and Cuba. So many things to see and do! We also spent time in old favorites: Ocean, Nature, Progress (a trip back in time to the 1860s and 1960s), Gadgets, and the Dinosaur museum. It is so fun to see how my children's attention changes as they grow. I still get to see the entire spectrum, from the 3 and 5 year old who dive deep into play with anything hands on, to the older kids who do as much reading and discussing of the exhibits as they do trying the hands on activities. Different kids lingered in different areas. Older kids showed things to younger ones to make sure they didn't miss out on favorites. Younger kids dragged their older buddies along to play in the sand table in Ocean or hoist themselves using pulleys in the Gadget area. As mother to a wide range of ages I get to enjoy all the ages more because of the perspective mothering adults down to a preschooler brings. Sometimes it is chaotic, often it is exhausting, but always it is deeply satisfying.