Jan 15th to Jan 23: Snow, Illness, and Books

 We had a wonderful late Christmas on Saturday with extended family. Good food, good conversation, and lots of laughs. Sunday the whole family was at church. I feel like it is important to note that, because in the winter in a large family it is rare for everyone to be healthy enough to all be at church. A winter cold that runs through a smaller family in a week or two can take us 4-6 weeks before the eleven of us get through it. It is more common to split the family between home and church as those who are well go, and those recovering stay home. 

In the late afternoon the winter storm that is wreaking havoc across the U.S. reached us in Ohio. We had a couple hours of ice that slowly accumulated before switching to snow. The kids went to bed hoping to wake Monday to a lot of snow.

Ice Emma found

They were quite happy to see we had 4-5 inches of snow when they woke up. After breakfast and some chores everyone headed outside for a couple hours to play. 

Rebekah wasn't thrilled when she got snow on her cheek, but eventually moved back to playing.

Unfortunately, Rebekah also woke up with a dry cough. She did not eat breakfast. When we came back inside from playing she drank some hot cocoa and ate some goldfish. She coughed and threw up about 10 minutes later. Her fever started climbing and she snuggled up on the couch to rest and watch Encanto, one of her current favorite movies. The rest of the day she sipped liquids and nibbled the occasional bite of food. I called her pediatrician for a quick check in by phone. 

The rest of the kids played games, drew, wrote on works in progress, and enjoyed the day.

Tuesday Rebekah woke up feeling much better, and able to keep food down. Still sounding froggy, but up and active. The pediatrician called and said to bring her on Wednesday for COVID testing, because they like testing kids on day 3. They also said her symptoms could be any of the 99 other winter viruses people usually have (so grateful for a pediatrician that recognizes this still!), so we shall see.

Wednesday Update: Rebekah is feeling great and tested negative for the virus. I'm getting her cough. The day was pretty straightforward with kids doing school, even during the hour I was gone with Rebekah getting tested. I love that homeschooling is such a normal thing for them, with or without mom at the helm. Our afternoon was filled with singing and dancing along to Encanto, drawing characters from Encanto, etc. I spent a solid block studying my scriptures and preparing seminary lessons, which is my afternoon routine. 

In the evening I drove around a bunch getting 7 kids to their church activities and back home, because some groups met at different times or places than usual. The kids all had a great night with their friends and doing interesting activities. 

Our Climbing Dome and Swing

Thursday morning was cold and homeschool-y. I spent some time updating a couple kids' homeschool portfolios for the year. We learned about lizards from around the world (science and geography), did a whole lot of math levels, read great books, answered 1001 questions, wrote, edited, did grammar practice, diagrammed sentences, and so on. The older kids read about Tajikistan in Notgrass World Geography, a landlocked mountanous country in Central Asia. A couple teens cooked dinner. We watched two episodes of World Watch Geography, playing a bit of catch up as we missed yesterday's episode. (If you've never heard of it, it is similar to CNN10) 

Friday was bitterly cold outside and we happily stayed in with our books and blankets. Kids trickled through the end of their lessons. The coughing cold spread to Daddy and Tobias. 

Saturday Emma and I went to Ikea to pick up some Kallax shelving units in different sizes. We did not get all the shelves we wanted, because they were out of stock. You see, we have a lot of books, well over 1000. We only had one large book shelf (5 shelves 5 feet long) in the dining room before this Ikea trip. Most of our books lived in the walk up attic, sorted by topic/school subject in labeled boxes or rubbermaid tubs. We were able to switch out books, but it was a lot of work. All my kids love reading, so every week someone is digging around in the attic storage for more books. 

We spent the weekend building shelves, anchoring them safely, and then filling them with books. We also were home from church with half of us still dealing with the winter cold.

Here is the new shelf in the piano room, mostly filled (for all it's fancy sounding name because of the piano in the room, this is also the computer room, the entry to the house, and part of the living room). On this shelf we went with two rows of chapter books and two rows of bigger books. Some of the chapter book shelves are stacked two deep.

This is the new shelf in my bedroom. This one is mainly curriculum, and a few of my own books. The bottom from left to right is The Good and The Beautiful Math for the younger 4 kids for their first 5 years of school (Math K, 1, 2, 3, 4). For example, Samuel only has one year left of math here, while Tobias has 4. Beside that are our science units in binders from TGTB. The next row up holds Apologia Science, TGTB History, TGTB Constitution and Government. The top two rows are much more mixed batches of curriculum, as well as one square of favorite chapter books double stacked.

The attic shelf is this one. Lots of chapter books stacked two deep on the top two rows. The bottom row is a mix of history and science nonfiction books and picture books.   

 In the end, we will need at least one more 3x4 Kallax shelf, when it comes back in stock. We have 4 or 5 boxes of books left to shelve. I have to be honest, there have been times when we've donated books, sold curriculum we were finished with, and decluttered books that we just didn't love. But I am so grateful for a library of books right in our home! It was a wonderful blessing during the COVID shutdown of our public library system, which lasted for months. It is always fun to see different kids discover books on our shelves that were favorites of older siblings. I also like that the kids are often found with a stack of books in their bed or on the couch or floor reading. 

I would love to know if your family keeps a lot of books, like we do, or if you are more minimal in the book department? Do you have a favorite book or series? I'll share a what we're reading post soon to give a peek at what we're reading here.