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. 

Notes for June 27th - July 13th

Tobias and Rebekah love

playing with the math

blocks.

Saturday's plan was simply to be home. Jason was recovering from surgery and split his time between doing school from the bed upstairs to sitting on the couch with his leg elevated to visit with the kids. We had easy meals. Breakfast was toast or oatmeal. Lunch was quesadillas, rice, watermelon, and grapes. Dinner was shredded pork sandwiches, which meant the meat roasted in the crock pot all day. I added in some potato wedges and leftover fruit. 

Sunday began with our home church time. We sing hymns, pray, partake of the sacrament, and then do some sort of lesson. This week was a "Who Am I?" game. Each person had a card with descriptions of a person from the book of Alma in the Book of Mormon. They read it aloud and we all tried to guess who they were. Most of the people were from chapters we have already studied in our family scripture study. A few were from upcoming chapters. 

In the afternoon we baked cinnamon rolls, played a round of Hedbanz, and just relaxed together. 

Monday kicked off a 90F week. Makayla worked on the farm. I picked up a prescription at the pharmacy, grabbed some meat that was on clearance, and restocked fruits and veggies for the week. Jason spent 6 hours on his surgery check up. There was an hour drive each way, a 20 minute ultrasound, and then hours and hours of waiting for the doctor, who he saw for less than 5 minutes. He has to go back next week to get another ultrasound and have stitches removed. Then a check up in 2 months. At that check up he's able to schedule the next surgery, for his other leg. 

After lunch Joseph, Daniel, Oliver, and Caleb spent a couple hours playing Monopoly Cheater's Edition. It takes forever to play a good game of Monopoly, and the Cheater's Edition gets pretty hilarious. Some of my kids are great at it, while others always get caught on their cheats. The best part was when I stopped by the table to see how the game was going. I grabbed all the $500 bills from the bank during Caleb's turn. When the turn moved to Daniel, I announced my cheat - and that they hadn't caught me. I was now the richest player in the game. Even though I wasn't playing. In the end, I returned the bank money and they continued their game. 

Dinner tonight was fried chicken and roasted corn on the cob. It was delicious! In the evening I started preparing our yearly homeschool notification paperwork. 

 Tuesday I took a couple quick pictures while the kids did their summer learning routine. Each week the kids read daily, write once, and do math practice. Their reading varies widely - from picture books to nonfiction to chapter books. Some have specific plans, like reading the Narnia series, while others decide what their next book will be when they finish the current read. We also have a family read aloud going. Through the first three months of quarantine that was a series by James Conti: Framed!, Vanished!, Trapped!. Now we are reading aloud Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. I haven't decided what our next read aloud will be. 

Dinner was BBQ pork ribs in the instant pot, with apples and baked potatoes on the side. The pork ribs are an unusual meat for us. These happened to be country style (boneless) and on clearance for $2.40/lb. They were delicious, and we have enough left over to toss on salads or in quesadillas later this week. 

 Wednesday I spent time researching places and resources for funding and building a wheelchair ramp on the house. It's a lot of phone calls, emails, and waiting around to hear from places. It's complicated. 

Thursday I also had some phone time because it is yet again time to schedule 11 dental cleanings. It is always an event to figure out how many people they will see at once, and fit it all in with our schedule. The day was pretty typical for quarantine life, quiet and at home. 

Friday is here. We had one ramp evaluation today. It's not cheap (over $8,000) but it also isn't a wood ramp. This company focuses on modular metal ramps. Now we need bids from two more companies. 

I don't have notes for the weekend, but it was pretty much family time at home, playing in the hot back yard while daddy power washed the house, and home church. 

Monday Daddy had a checkup at the surgeon's office. Healing is going well so far. We took the 9 younger kids swimming at the YMCA outdoor pool. They have a limit on how many people can be there at each two hour swim session, so it wasn't super full. That helps a lot, because we have a lot of non-swimmers, and need to keep an eye on them, physically help Mason, and try to teach kids to float and swim. I'm tired! Kids are tired! It was great!

Tuesday we woke to thunderstorms and heavy rain. It was a stay inside and play kind of day, with thunderstorms on and off all day. Pokémon battles were the main game of choice. 

Wednesday through Friday were spent planning, preparing, and getting things organized for the coming homeschool year. We will be starting back to school the first week of August. We also did a lot of playing games, reading, and family time on these days. A few kids made projects with Lego. The younger kids spent a lot of time pretending with Little People sets we've had for a decade or more. 

Saturday was Samuel's 7th birthday. He woke up happy to open his presents and enjoy them. We also spent part of the morning on a new family adventure.

 We bought a Raddish Kids subscription, a cooking subscription for kids. 

This first box's theme was Ticket to Tokyo. 

We divided the kids into groups and each group prepared and cooked one of the three recipes. 

We made Yakisoba noodles (delicious - the favorite recipe from this box), Teriyaki chicken skewers (also yum!), and sushi (an adventure for sure). 

After an hour and a half of prep and cooking we sat down together as a family with chopsticks and our new foods. 

It was so much fun, but a lot of work and dishes. 

I think next month we will spread out preparing recipes over a few days or weeks.

 In the evening we went swimming at the YMCA outdoor pool again. 

We ended up making double of each recipe, if you were wondering. 

Sunday morning began with church at home. Then Emma and I baked 96 chocolate cupcakes for Samuel's birthday party. Emma, Daniel, and Oliver piped on the frosting, then Samuel added the sprinkles. We had the party that evening and you could see Samuel's joy that it was finally his birthday. My kids are now 2, 4, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 14, 15, and 19 - until October, when we start the chain of 8 kid's birthdays in 5 months. 

Monday we made plans to visit my sister's family. The husbands were replacing brakes on our car, then pizza night together.

2018-2019 Homeschool Week 25: Food

I took no notes for the weekend, but basically it was work (Makayla), going to a birthday party for a 6 year old boy we know and love (with my 6 youngest boys), then a family birthday party hosted at my house (for Mason, Rebekah, and Uncle Justin). The only picture I have is from our Sunday dinner. We made a snack board. Apparently, this is a thing! People make these fancy-schmancy boards with beautiful foods and post them on Pinterest. They are a descendant of Charcuterie boards (cheese and meat boards). Some of them are true works of art. A few of my boys helped me make ours and everyone loved having it right on the table to pick from for dinner. 

Monday Notes

We got snow Sunday evening and icy rain overnight. Then it started warming up and everything turned to a slushy, slippery mess. We had a good bit of school work to do. I felt like I was bouncing between kids all morning because I pretty much was. I love it and it makes me crazy some days. I sat with Caleb for his new math lesson, making bar and line graphs. He thought I was so funny because I love reaching this lesson in Math U See Beta. It means he has FINISHED his year's math curriculum and it is a fun lesson to end on. Our plan is to use the extra pages in the workbook that he didn't need to do the first time around for the rest of the school year, make sure he really has the addition and subtraction facts mastered, and then wander our way into multiplication. 

We set ourselves a challenge to do two writing pieces for history topics from the last few weeks of lessons to round out each child's history study for the year. I put topics and doodles on the white board and people used those as a springboard/reminder of possibilities. Then they did some research if needed for specific details like dates and places in our history books and got writing. For younger kids I was their secretary and they dictated what I was to type. A few kids also chose to illustrate their writing. Topics chosen included:

• Florence Nightingale
• The Space Race from beginning to end
• Space stations 
• The first lunar landing
• The Wright Brothers
• The history of flight
• Amelia Earhart
• The race to the moon
• The Hindenburg Explosion

We also got tickets to a circus that will be in our area next month for most of the family. We are fans of The Greatest Showman and ever since seeing it some of our children have wanted to go to a circus. They have checked out library books about circus performers, circus acts, circuses in history, and the science behind different circus performance. This is the first opportunity to go see a real, live, circus. They are excited!

Tuesday Notes

Monday evening Rebekah developed a fever, which is probably the second fever she has had in her entire life. Poor girl! By 2am she was unable to sleep peacefully anywhere but in mama's arms, so I held her for the next 3 hours until she was finally deeply asleep and stayed that way in her crib. Needless to say, when my wake-up alarm rang an hour later I was a bit tired. We soldiered on with our morning and I decided it was the perfect morning to put out an invitation to creativity on the table before the kids came down for breakfast. I put out scratch art paper and extra wooden stylus (aff) with a note on one paper that simply said, "Try me!" Most of the family spent time off and on doodling on these papers all day.

School work was accomplished in the usual manner. The biggest excitement was that Mason finished All About Reading level 2 today. He'll start level 3 tomorrow. I really need to skim through it with him and get to the lessons he needs. Reading has clicked pretty well for him, so why waste time on lessons he doesn't need?

Today was piano lesson day. We also had cousins stop in for a quick visit in the afternoon. Other than that it was a quiet afternoon waiting to see how many kids would join Rebekah in being sick. (My husband is also sick, coughing up a storm.) Rebekah also threw up once in the late evening.

Wednesday Notes

Tuesday night was another hard night for Rebekah. She was up from 1am-4:30am with me, not feeling well, and grumpy. The hardest part of this is simply that my husband can't pick up and hold Rebekah because of his shoulder surgery, so there is no taking turns with her so we can each get some rest. It's all me, all the time. I am also up in the middle of every night to do some medical care for Mason. Such is mom life!

Morning came all too soon and with it the needs of the rest of my family. Breakfast, laundry, and another sick child. We wandered our way through school work, much of the time with Rebekah back in my arms, content and cuddly. Her fever broke - just in time for Tobias to get sick. He pretty much laid on the couch all day, snacked a little, drank water a little, and snuggled under a blanket while I read books to him or he watched cartoons.

After lunch and the 1 1/2 hour medical care for Mason in the afternoon I was finally able to go back to bed for a nap while Rebekah napped. Two glorious hours of rest! We made pancakes and bacon for dinner and Tobias got off the couch and went upstairs to lay on the floor and play with Legos for a while. Makayla drove the oldest four kids to Wednesday night activities while Daddy and I got the rest of the kids settled in for the evening. The boys are listening to Fablehaven 4: Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary.

Thursday Notes

Our Valentines Day was low-key with the sick kids in varying stages. We did a morning of school work, then Mason and I went to physical therapy.

 In the later afternoon Emma and I did some errands that needed done and discovered strawberries on sale super cheap. We picked up 5 lbs of strawberries and some chocolate as a surprise. Several of the middle and older kids made it all into chocolate covered strawberries. Delicious!

Friday Notes

Rebekah finally had a solid night of sleep, only up once. She's feeling better today while some kids are feeling worse. This is the hard part of a large family - we can drag out illness over a month or more, or we can all come down with it in the same couple of days (only especially bad when the illness involves vomit).

School was swiftly dispatched and the rest of the chocolate covered strawberries were eaten along the way. Makayla and I spent some time dealing with college related emails. She has officially heard back from half of the schools she applied to about acceptance/rejection. Until the final few let us know what is going on I'll have to leave things pretty vague, but I can say she won't be staying home in the fall.

I put up a quick post earlier today sharing our thoughts on some of the different curricula we have been using this year. You can read that right here.

I think that is it for this week. I need to get caught up on a few things but a book for me is calling my name, so maybe I'll just go read one more chapter...

2018-2019 Homeschool Weeks 10, 11, 12

Three weeks have passed since I last checked in here and it is all a bit of a blur. We started with a trip to the Ohio Renaissance Festival. It is always a fun adventure with lots of people in costume, a live joust, acrobatics, sword fighting shows, a village, shops, and games. The kids all had spending money and came home with a variety of items from handmade leather notebooks to wooden swords and shields. We have had a host of bruises, bumps, and bandages since!

The blur comes because in 3 weeks we managed to have TWENTY doctors appointments. We have at least seven more appointments next week.

We did all our school work, the house was relatively tidy, and everyone was fed each day. It is hard to imagine but we are done with 3 months of school work already. We have had a few adjustments here and there, but overall we are still using the curriculum we started the year with. I absolutely love The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts and History. From my perspective the Language Arts is much more streamlined in hitting all the different things we want without hopping between different curricula for writing, literature, grammar, etc. The History is a great mix of reading, audio stories, notebooking, activities, and research. I like that there are extensions for different grade levels in the notebooks to take things deeper but that we can still have a group lesson for topics. We have also learned a few interesting things, like the fact that Makayla does much better with Trigonometry than she did with Algebra 2, that Emma loves writing and hates writing assignments, and that noise cancelling headphones like you would wear at a gun range are a great tool for Daniel when it's time for school.

The biggest event in  the last three weeks for us was that Joseph passed his baked egg food challenge at the allergist. After 13 years of a total egg ban in our home we are now introducing eggs into our family's diet in a limited way. Joseph and Mason both have passed the baked egg challenge so they need to eat something with eggs in it at least 3 days per week for the next 6 months. Baked egg means some foods are still restricted: eggs cooked on the stove top like scrambled eggs, omlets, French toast, pancakes, waffles, ranch dressing, mayonnaise, fresh pasta, etc. Most everything else is fair game. So far we have tried doughnuts, meatloaf, snickers and milky way candy bars, corn dogs, and Hawaiian rolls. Cookies is next. In six months Joseph and Mason will each be eligible to try a soft cooked egg food challenge at the allergist's office.

I panic every time we eat something new, checking frequently that each child is not having a reaction over the 3 hours following consumption. I think after everyone has eaten a food item once and survived I won't worry about that food item the next time. It is going to take a while to get there.

Happy November everyone!

Easy No-Egg Doughnuts with Biscuit Dough

Melissa asked for my doughnut recipe and I just had to share. This is my 'I'm going for quick and easy so I'm not even making my own dough' recipe. Just so you are warned!

Ingredients:

• Oil - enough to fill your pan 1/2 inch full. This is what you will be frying the doughnuts in. I use a large skillet to cook as many doughnuts at once as possible.
• Biscuit dough - I buy cans. The first time we used jumbo biscuits and cut a hole in the middle. The second time we used regular small biscuits and didn't bother with adding a hole. It is much easier to cook the smaller biscuits all the way through! For the 11 of us I made 80 small doughnuts and we had leftovers for the second day.
• 2 sticks of butter - You will melt this and dip the cooked doughnuts in butter before topping, unless you are using icing.
• Toppings - powdered sugar, cinnamon and sugar, icing, etc.
• TOOLS: You MUST have tongs or something to turn the biscuits in the hot oil and remove them. I also like to have paper towels for the cooling step.

Here is my setup from the first time we made doughnuts. You can see a cookie sheet on the left of the stove for uncooked biscuit dough, the pan of hot oil, a cookie sheet with paper towels for cooling a bit, bowls with butter and toppings for dipping, and a cookie sheet for finished doughnuts.

What to do:

1. Heat your 1/2 inch of oil in a pan on medium.
2. Melt your butter in a bowl.
3. Put any other toppings in bowls.
4. Put biscuits in the oil and cook until the bottom is golden brown, then turn over and cook the other side of biscuit to golden brown. This takes just a minute or so per side, depending on how hot your oil is.
5. Remove cooked doughnuts to a pan to cool enough to handle. I line this pan with paper towels.
6. Once cool enough to handle dip your cooked doughnut in butter and roll in your topping. The only exception - if you are icing your doughnut you can skip the dipping in butter.
7. Eat. And cook more doughnuts.

Tobias really liked the chocolate dipped doughnuts!

See what I mean? Easy. Please remember that any time you are cooking with hot oil you need to be very careful. Once we begin the doughnut process I do not walk away from the pan of oil. I have a helper who does the buttering and topping of doughnuts because I don't want to take any chances that a child might walk near the stove with a pan full of hot oil.

Today's Grocery Shopping Trip

People have asked for more information about my grocery budget so I decided to share this week's purchases with a couple tips. We have a $200 a week grocery budget for the 11 of us ($800/month). Today I went shopping and spent $160, which leaves $40 in the budget. I will use that for more milk and probably some more fresh veggies.

The first tip I have is to buy a few extra non-perishable or freezer items each week. If you do this consistently over time you will build up a pantry of food in the house so you never really run out of food and don't have to totally fill the pantry in a single week. For example, buy an extra peanut butter and an extra jelly this week. Buy an extra case of canned veggies. Buy an extra container of oatmeal. Buy more than one item when you can, and stick to items that you know your family will eat. If canned pineapple is on sale but nobody likes it, don't waste your money.

My second tip is to watch for meat sales and markdowns. I check meat prices every time I'm at the store, even if I'm just swinging in to WalMart to pick up a prescription, and grab something if the price is good. This week I ended up buying a lot of meat. Here are the meat deals I found at WalMart:

• Ground Beef - 5 lbs on sale at $2/lb.
• Chicken Breast - 11 lbs marked down to $1.43/lb.
• Pork butt roast - 14 lbs (2 roasts) marked down to $1.07/lb.
• Brautwurst - 2.5 lbs marked down to $2.08/lb.

Will we eat 32.5 lbs of meat this week? No way! Some will be eaten, some will be frozen for another week. The important part of this is that we won't need to buy meat again until I find another sale or markdown. I already had 3 lbs ground sausage, 3 lbs ground beef, 2 turkeys, 2 lbs polish sausage, 1.5 lbs hot dogs, and 1.5 lbs steak chunks in my freezer (that adds up to another 45 lbs already in the freezer with the turkeys). It means that I can skip buying meat for a month if I need to. It also means the money I would have spent on meat each week can go toward those extra pantry items I mentioned in tip number 1.

This week's menu is as follows:

Breakfasts will be cereal, oatmeal, cocowheats, or toast.

Lunches will be sandwiches, fruit, veggies, salad, leftovers, pasta, rice, muffins.

Dinners will be:

•  Hamburgers, hot dogs, fries.
• BBQ Chicken, broccoli, rice.
• Meatloaf, baked potatoes, carrots.
• Tacos, refried beans, salad.
• Chili and cornbread.
• Spaghetti and meatballs.
• Pancakes.
• Pulled pork, mashed potatoes, broccoli/cauliflower.

Here is exactly what I bought at the grocery store this week for $160. I shopped mainly at Aldi, with meat and a couple other items found at WalMart:

• fresh pineapple
• 9 lbs apples
• 3 lbs mandarins
• 2.5 lbs bananas
• 10 lbs potatoes
• 1 lb carrots
• dill pickles
• 2 heads lettuce
• frozen meatballs
• hot dogs
• 12 cans pears
• 3 cans chipotle peppers
• 3 bags bagels
• 6 loaves bread
• 5 lbs cornmeal
• breadcrumbs
• 60 flour tortillas
• cheeses, 3 lbs
• 2 gallons milk
• honey
• ketchup
• 2 hazelnut spread
• 2 boxes round crackers
• 16 hot dog buns
• 8 hamburger buns
• 2 bags tortilla chips
• 32oz chicken broth
• 3 cans cinnamon rolls
• chili powder
• cumin
• 2 bags corn chips
• Brautwurst - 2.5 lbs.
• Pork butt roast - 14 lbs (2 roasts)
• Chicken Breast - 11 lbs
• Ground Beef - 5 lbs

You'll notice that I didn't mention coupons. That's because generally I just don't use them. I don't buy a lot of packaged foods in name brands that have coupons available. Why? Because I can get things cheaper just by making them myself or buying them at Aldi.

That's all I've got for today! If you have any questions feel free to ask in the comments.