November 2020-January 2021: Catching Up On Life

It has been months since I blogged. I found this post sitting in my draft folder and decided to add a few more notes and post it. Enjoy!

Sunday, November 22 was home church and family time. Rest and preparing for a trip to pick up the college girl.

Monday and Tuesday we did a couple of art projects. There were nutcracker drawings, gingerbread houses drawn with glue/white paint, and paper mittens cut out and painted. We used burlap to do some yarn weaving (aka. embroidery). 

Wednesday - At 5:00am Emma and I climbed into the car and started driving to Virginia. We had a whirlwind day to go pick up Makayla at college and bring her home for the holidays. She will do online classes/exams for the last two weeks of this semester, and will not head back to Virginia until mid-January when next semester begins. It took us 14 hours to get to Makayla and back home, a long day of driving. 

Thursday was Thanksgiving. Our morning and afternoon were pretty laid back, just enjoying time as a family. In the evening my sister's family and my mom and her husband came over for dinner. We had a great, noisy time talking, eating, and laughing together. 

Friday Jason was back at work. The kids and I played more games today - Gubs, Farkle, Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza, and Harry Potter Headbanz. We ate leftovers, so there wasn't even a lot of cooking to do today. 

Saturday morning was just relaxed family time. In the early afternoon Grandma came over and we all headed to the zoo. We had a plan - see lots of animals and stay long enough to see the holiday lights show. It was a great trip. Favorite animals seen today according to the kids were the elephants, seals, red pandas, a silver variant of the red fox, and the rescued baby manatee. 

Sunday November 29th it felt like I was in the kitchen more than usual, though I really wasn't. Lunch was beef fajitas. Yum! Dinner was potato soup made in the instant pot. We also put up our Christmas tree today. 

Monday it rained and snowed all day. It didn't change over to only snow until evening. Today was our last day of Thanksgiving break. We played a lot, cleaned a fair amount, and finally moved the last of the kids' shorts out of their drawers and into the attic. Dinner tonight was pancakes, because we finished off the batch of pancakes in the freezer last week. We make up a giant batch, eat what we want, and then freeze the rest for easy breakfasts. 

We finally finished listening to Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire! We started the first Harry Potter book in March at the beginning of quarantine. We have now ready the first four books as a family. We won't read the rest of the books aloud, as they get a bit dark for our younger kids. Now we need to choose our next read aloud.

Tuesday morning we woke to a couple inches of snow. It was beautiful but cold. We did a morning of school work. The kids doing geology decided to add in an art project after learning about agates. Out came the watercolors and salt, and beautiful agates were painted. 

In the afternoon we voted on our next read aloud. We had 5 options:

• The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang
• Enola Holmes: The Case of the Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer
• The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
• The Reluctant Dragon by Kenneth Grahame
• A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

We had each person rank the books in order from 1 (want to read next) to 5 (not interested in reading). Then we did some math with the votes and found out which book won. Actually - we had a tie for first place, with The Hobbit and The Reluctant Dragon each receiving 19 points. That meant looking at how many #1 votes each received, and The Reluctant Dragon slid into first place. As that book is only 53 minutes long, we will then quickly move into listening to The Hobbit after that. 

Wednesday was school work. Kids wrote, drew, read, computed, and explored topics they love and topics they are less enthusiastic about. In the evening we had a surprise delivery of snowman soup packets (hot cocoa with marshmallows and candy canes). 

Thursday we trudged through school as quickly as we could, before I took Emma to the orthodontist. She is getting ever closer to finishing her time in braces. In the late afternoon our new freezer arrived, replacing one that was 20 years old and falling apart. Lots of minor rearranging commenced, in an attempt to find a good place to put things. 

Missing weeks! Lots of them. I know we did school, had holidays, and so on

A few December notes:

Our month has had simple home-centered moments of fun. I'll just list a few:

• Roasting hot dogs and smores over a fire.
• A lot of board games and card games.
• The last birthday of the year - Emma turned 15. My kids officially will begin 2021 at the following ages: 2, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 15, 16, 19. Of course, not even two weeks into January we start the birthday rounds again. Ha!
• Baking days: muffins, banana bread, cookies, scones, cakes, peanut butter pie, cinnamon rolls, bread, rolls, and more. 
• Decorating the tree. And redecorating it daily as the younger kids remove all the ornaments they can reach, and put them back on. 
• Christmas was wonderful. Some family members send gifts for the kids from other states, so we were able to spread out gift opening a bit, which the kids find much less overwhelming. 

JANUARY NOTES

In January we sorted our games. We love playing games.
We now have more than 130 games, all of which we 
play at different times.

 Mason turned 9 years old. He had a fun birthday and got some neat gifts that give him lots to do, like this magnet lab and a book in a series he likes.

We soaked up every moment of family time we could with Makayla. She bought a car. That led to a crazy trip to take her back to college with 2 vehicles (hers, plus ours so we could get home) with Daddy, Daniel, Makayla, and me. Each car had 2 people in it, one driver and one person to keep the driver awake on the drive. At every stop we rotated drivers or vehicles or both. It was a safe and uneventful trip to Virginia and back in one day. 

We started back up to school after our two week Christmas break. We've moved into a new unit in history (westward expansion) and are reading Redwood Pioneer aloud. The non-high school kids are doing Beginning Chemistry from The Good and the Beautiful, having finished up the Geology unit in December.

We also decided that for the winter we need Art Project Fridays. Basically, we will work on mom-led art projects on Fridays. There is a lot of art going on outside of that, but the kids like the Deep Space Sparkle art projects I have filed away.

This month we focused on learning about graffiti, studied different well known graffiti artists and their work, discussed legality of art on public property without invitation, and learned about typography.

This project took three Fridays to complete. On the first class we sponge painted the spray painted the background papers. Then the kids chose their word to draw in pencil.

On the next Friday they used paint pens to graffiti the backgrounds. 

The final Friday they used oil pastels to color their tag (big feature word), cut it out, and glued it to the graffiti background.  

Emma got her braces off. Three kids have now made it through the braces process, with more yet to go.

The other thing that has been happening a lot is Lego creating. I snapped this picture of a UFO beaming up a cow that Daniel made this month. 

I'll share some February updates soon. 

Catching Up: Four Weeks from October to November

Blocks never fail to entertain.

Monday, October 26th was the day Mason finally got his cast off. Nearly six weeks in a cast was a lot of work, and a lot of working around things. It also posed risks for Mason. While I would like to say the cast came off and he had no unfortunate effects, I can't. As I type this, it is Monday evening, and we are still waiting to see what all will happen. 

So far, his leg has swollen a lot, which was not unexpected. The tricky part of that is we won't know for a few days if that swelling is a normal body response or if it is in response to the leg bones being broken during cast removal. (Remember, Mason has osteoporosis, so that is a very real possibility.) 

He also has one area we are watching to see if it will be a pressure wound. There are a lot of layers of dead skin to slough off in the next few days, helped along by baths. We can't scrub his skin, because it is not sturdy enough to do that. Once the dead skin comes off, we will be able to see if the area underneath is okay or not. An open wound that could heal in a few days or weeks for a neurotypical person, can take months for Mason, because his paralysis means his nerves don't function right. He can't feel anything from pretty much the hips down. That means his body doesn't get all the messages it needs to know when it has healing/repair work to do. 

Tuesday was a normal homeschool day for us. Kids rotated through their subjects - math, language arts, science, and so on. There were a few bad attitudes to navigate, which is never my favorite, but we made it through the work of the day and into the afternoon hours where kids are free to explore their interests. Mason's swelling is present, but less, and the skin is not looking worse today, which is a hopeful sign. 

Favorite Games Currently: Bop It, Villainous: Disney, Castle Panic, Jumanjii

Wednesday's school morning felt peaceful. Each child cheerfully worked through their subjects. I always appreciate days like that. 

Thursday I could officially say it looks like Mason avoided any major pressure sores from his cast. While his skin is definitely worse for the wear, it is doing much better than it could be. It rained all day, but the kids are counting down to a few fun activities in the next bit, so they kept busy today cheerfully. (Coming activities include making buckeyes with Grandma, a fire pit dinner with smores, and a trip to the zoo). After dinner several kids painted peg dolls. 

Friday was the buckeye making with Grandma. It ended up being a bit of a comedy of errors, but chocolate and peanut butter taste good together regardless. We finished up the school week with a solid run of lessons. 

We can pet and feed stingrays at our zoo.

Saturday I did the usual errands, with unusual results. Our van, the only vehicle that fits our family, died while in line at the bank. We decided after a bit that it was most likely the alternator, and dropped it off in the lot at our favorite mechanic's shop, which was already closed. We knew they would call us Monday after they had a chance to look at it. That meant our planned Monday trip to the zoo had to be postponed to a later date.

We spent the evening outside roasting dinner and smores over a fire in the backyard. It was chilly and just the perfect weather for it!

Sunday, November 1st was family time, home church, and preparing for the school week. Restful.

Monday started with our typical homeschool work. Then we got the expected call from the mechanic - with unexpected drama. Sometime between late Saturday when we dropped off the van and early Monday, people snuck onto the mechanic's lot and cut parts off our van to the tune of several thousand dollars in parts. The police were called, and then it was lots of phone time with insurance companies to figure out what to do next. We are still working through that process, but in the end, our van will end up getting the repairs we put it in for, plus a lot of extra work. We are without our van for the week.

Lots of stingrays.

Tuesday and Wednesday were hard days in our not so little homeschool. Lots of grumpy kids, lots of complaining over school work, and lots of frustration. We got through it, and woke up Thursday to what felt like a whole new homeschool. Everyone was cheerful, worked willingly, and had fun together. Friday Tobias turned 5 years old, we had a normal school day, and we got word our van was ready to pick up the next day.

Saturday we picked up the van, picked up groceries, picked up library books, picked up monthly medications, baked a cake, baked monkey bread, made no-bake cookies, and then had our November family birthday party. This time the party was at my sister's house and we had 4 birthdays to celebrate: Tobias, Caleb, my niece Alyssa, and my sister, who all have November birthdays. 

Sunday, November 8th we rested, did home church, and had an online seminary activity with over 200 youth in the central Ohio area over Zoom. We also decided Monday would be the perfect day to make a trip to the zoo.

Mason's favorite animal - the red pandas.

It was a perfect zoo trip day. Warm weather and perfectly clear, sunny skies. We visited several areas of the zoo, fed and pet the stingrays, and saw a lot of animals. The zoo is doing a great job limiting the number of people coming in at a time, so we were able to stay distanced and mask free outside easily. Whenever we popped into a building we put on masks, per their requirements. 

One of the zoo highlights was that as we entered the new Zoo village a couple of keepers came out and asked if we wanted to see the three capybara brothers. They were moving them from their indoor to their outdoor habitat, and that involved walking them right through the public areas. They were the cutest big rodents!

Capybaras

The rest of this week has mysteriously disappeared, I forgot to take notes. 

Sunday, November 15th we had a quiet day with church at home. We played games, read books, and just had a rest day. 

Monday we dove into our last school week before Thanksgiving break. We had the usual lessons, a doctor's appointment, and a Zoom meeting with the college financial aid department for Makayla. 

Tuesday's highlight was baking muffins. We also reached the really exciting parts of our family read aloud, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. We've been working through this book for weeks, just listening over lunch or dinner. The kids are fully invested. The older couple have read the book before, so they are excited to watch the middle kids discover it all. The younger kids don't really pay attention, they are too busy eating. That's okay. 

Wednesday was spent on the phone setting up future medical appointments. We have things scheduled into July of 2021 for various people at this point. I finally ordered a wall calendar for 2021 and put all those appointments in. A couple of the boys took the current games up to the attic and traded them in for different games. We've been playing a lot of games this week, including Clue, The Oregon Trail, Telestrations, Sequence, and Hi Ho Cherry O. 

This board game is more than 25 years old,
made by my grandfather. Now my kids get to play it too.

Thursday the kids started getting excited for Thanksgiving break. They decided they wanted to do a couple art projects that week, so we looked through our many files from the Deep Space Sparkle membership we had a few years ago. Between the 9 kids we'll be doing five different project (two per child):

• The Nutcracker - Drawing and coloring a nutcracker soldier.
• Gingerbread House - Draw a house, use glue mixed with white paint to draw the icing, then after it dries, color in the details with chalk pastels.
• Paper Mittens - Cut out large mittens, paint designs on them.
• Navajo Weavings - Sewing yarn through burlap, then using foam to cut shapes and dip in paint for printmaking on the burlap.
• Weaving with Yarn - Making cardboard looms and weaving yarn mats. 

Friday we started with a typical school morning. Right before history Grandma arrived for a surprise visit. We hung out for a bit, then she decided to join us for our history lesson. This lesson was the halfway mark in our history curriculum. 

Saturday Daddy started out with a work meeting. The kids played games. I ordered a new freezer, which will arrive in a couple of weeks. We spent the evening playing Telestrations as a family. 

Catching Up, Sort of - Late September to Late October

Late September: Sunday was still a very structured day of ice and elevating Mason's legs. We had church at home, which I love. Our lesson was about prophecies and restoration. 

Monday was the first day that really felt like our homeschool break week. Now that Mason was more than 72 hours out from surgery, it was time to see how much time he could spent sitting up without elevating his legs. His body did pretty well, lots of time sitting on the floor playing with Legos, some time sitting on the couch playing Go Fish or reading, some time in his wheelchair playing with thinking putty or other things at the table, and a few sessions laying with legs elevated. 

Fast forward a lot. . . keep going. . . almost there. . . 

Here we reach what I call the 'post surgery void'. It is the days and weeks where life continued on without any note taking. Fast forward almost six weeks and you reach today. Here is a recent family picture, only missing Makayla, who is away at college: 

My life is very full physically (lots of lifting Mason at 60+ pounds all day long, plus normal home life work) and very full mentally - lots of teaching with homeschooling a houseful of 9, alongside teaching seminary just after 6am every weekday to 11 teens over Zoom (I wish we were in person), the cooking and cleaning and the heart work of parenting a large family of always growing and changing children during a pandemic that has affected their daily life in major ways. I've hit my maximum capacity and moved well past it into overwhelm territory.  

There is no way I can juggle the varied needs of an extra large family alongside all of these good but hard work things. On my own, I would just lay on the floor and give up. It isn't possible to do everything I need to do. 

But God is amazing.

I see on a daily basis how God blesses and multiplies my efforts. He makes more time in my day, inspires me in my tasks, helps me understand things I need to learn, guides me to learn more quickly or work in a more organized way, and makes my limited hours of sleep enough. I fall into bed at night with not one shred of extra mental strength left. I'm emptied out. But when that alarm rings early in the dark hours of the morning I wake up with a song on my heart and a smile on my face. I'm so grateful. I am witnessing small miracles every single day in my life. 

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. 

August 29th - September 4th Notes

Saturday the kids and I finally finished going through the bins of clothing in the attic, checking fall/winter wardrobes. It was a lot of work, as usual. Now we have a list of who wears what size, and who needs what items to fill out their wardrobe as the seasons change. Grocery shopping happened Saturday morning, too. We've got a meal plan with a mix of familiar and new recipes (from our Raddish Kids boxes). We're trying a bit of Thai food this week. I also had six different kids volunteer to bake the soft pretzels Raddish recipe this week. I'm putting an older kid in charge of it one day with some younger helpers. 

Sunday we had church at home, as usual. Daniel taught the lesson, which was about the power of remembering God. In the evening we went to my sister's house for the monthly extended family birthday party. This one was celebrating my nephew and my step dad, both of whom have August birthdays. 

Monday morning I was up at 5:15am, followed shortly by Joseph and Emma. We had our first Zoom based Seminary class for the school year. While I would love to have all of these youth in my home each morning for class, I am grateful the Lord inspired someone to create technology that makes meeting remotely possible for now. 

Our homeschool day went smoothly. So far the kids like having our schedule with a lighter load on Mondays (generally new math lessons, science, and literature/reading). I like it too! Because my husband is home on Mondays, we are able to do appointments (today Mason had a video appointment with his dermatologist), errands, extra chores, or extra fun. In the afternoon we gathered on the floor in the living room to play the card game Capture. 

Tuesday was September 1st, which, for Harry Potter fans, is significant because at 11:00am on September 1st the train leaves for Hogwarts each year. I surprised the kids with a short school day followed by cooking Harry Potter themed foods and watching the second movie. We made butterbeer fudge, chocolate fudge, pumpkin pasties, apple pasties, and strawberry pasties, with a veggie platter 'from Professor Sprout's garden'. In the afternoon we had homemade butterbeer for a treat. It was a really simple day to put together, but the kids loved it. 

Wednesday we worked through school steadily all morning. Everyone likes or at least peacefully completes their lessons. We gathered in the living room midway through our morning for another chapter in our history read aloud. We had leftover fudge and pasties from yesterday to snack on while we read. Friends dropped off an entire bucket of tomatoes from their garden for us to enjoy. In the evening Caleb gathered a lot of us to play another card game - Guillotine. 

Thursday most kids started their school day with reading, then math. I sat at the table, helping as needed. For those unfamiliar with homeschooling a large family, here is how it works at my house most days. After breakfast is over, I sit at our very long dining room table. Kids gather around me to work, or go work on the floor, the couch, a bed, or just about anywhere else in the house. For many of the subjects I only help when asked, such as if a child needs me for a portion of a lesson in language arts, wants to discuss a book, has a math question, or needs me for sentence dictation. However, for some of my younger kids, I directly teach some subjects daily. I call each of these children one by one to do a lesson. If you aren't working with mom, you are working on independent things like reading for 20 minutes, practicing handwriting, or etc, or you are on break. Lessons I teach one on one:

• Language Arts for Samuel, Mason, and Caleb. (Oliver, Daniel, Emma, and Joseph each need me for some things in their language arts, but can do much independently.
• Math for Samuel and Mason. (Everyone else needs me on Monday for a new lesson, and for help here and there during the rest of the week.)

By 10am we are often ready for a snack and a group subject that I teach. Two days a week that group subject is science, three days a week it is history. (The high schoolers do a separate science from this middle and elementary science group, but are a part of the history group.) After an hour on this subject, kids can finish up any other school work they have left. 

Friday was school work, a visit from grandma, and the great pretzel baking day. The kids all loved the soft pretzel recipe from our Raddish kit that Emma and Mason baked recently, so today they all worked together in the kitchen to bake a quadruple batch for dinner. We also video chatted with Makayla, which is always fun. 

August 16th - August 28th Notes

Sunday morning we had a simple breakfast before home church. Today we discussed Alma chapters 53-63, then watched a cute stop motion animation with Legos that went over those chapters. Lunch was bacon and pancakes. In the afternoon we video chatted with Makayla. Then we meal planned as a family, with all the kids choosing a dinner or treat to help cook this week. Dinner tonight was Oliver's project. He made a recipe from our most recent Raddish Kids box - Pizza Pockets. They were yummy! In the evening we had a family movie. 

Monday morning I was out the door just after 6am to grocery shop, not having done that on Saturday because we were taking Makayla to college. Two stores later I had nearly everything on my list, and I scored a good deal on ground beef. By the time I returned home my husband had kids up, fed, and moving around doing their morning tasks. I sat at the table and taught 7 math lessons, one after another. Any kids waiting for their lesson turn worked on other tasks (independent reading, chores, etc). At 10am I pulled the 7th grade and under kids in for science. Today we read about two famous waterfalls, read a few questions and answers from our Q&A book, and did a lesson on different bodies of water. After exploring what identified different water features the kids all pulled out playdough and construction paper and built bodies of water as I called them out. Rebekah and Tobias loved participating in this part of the lesson. We also read about the Alaskan Gold Rush and the Yukon River mapping project that resulted, discussed why it was important, and why even today it has to be rechecked and adjusted each year (tides, currents, erosion, storms, and so on and their affect on the mouth of the Yukon River floor and sandbars). After this group, I went over Chemistry with Joseph and Emma. The rest of the day was spent cooking, playing, crafting, drawing, and enjoying family time. 

Tuesday was a simple homeschool day. We followed our routines and everything was done by lunch. In science for the elementary/middle school kids we studied the effects of weathering and erosion. In the early afternoon Emma and Mason made soft pretzels with another Raddish Kids recipe. They were easy and delicious! Joseph cooked dinner - chicken tacos. He cooked chicken in the Instant Pot, rice in the rice cooker, then prepped things like chopping lettuce, plucking grapes, etc. A few people decided to add Caesar dressing for a repeat of our Chicken Caesar Wraps from an earlier Raddish Kids box. 

In the evening I started printing a new piano course - Broadway in a Breeze. We have been without piano lessons for a good while now, as our teacher needed to stop before COVID even began. Joseph and Daniel have stayed diligent at continuing to learn piano. One program we were introduced to during piano lessons was Hymns in a Hurry. The musical notation he uses makes it easy to begin playing songs with chords within a day, and it's been something we enjoy. Dr. Kelly has released several other piano programs in the same notation, from Primary Songs in a Hurry and Pop Songs in a Hurry, to the newest release, Broadway in a Breeze. This one has several songs from The Greatest Showman, among other things. Joseph and I have both been playing them.

Wednesday we started with language arts lessons, then math, reading, and history. Today's topic in history was the Phoenicians, including their shipbuilding, purple dye, and trade. We also read another chapter in Slave Boy in Judea. The kids are enjoying the story, and so am I. 

In the early afternoon we headed outside to enjoy a buggy but not as hot day for an hour. Then we came in and the kids wanted to watch The Greatest Showman, after hearing Joseph playing some of the music. Emma took a break from watching the movie to mix up a meatloaf, put it in the oven, and toss some potatoes in the Instant Pot for dinner. It was the recipe she chose to make this week, and her first attempt at meatloaf - which she found to be a disgusting mixing process.

Thursday morning kids alternated between regular homeschool work and observing the construction of a wheelchair ramp on the front of the house for Mason. I am sure you can guess which lessons will be more memorable 5 years from now! A husband and wife team did the construction, working steadily all day. Grandma came to visit for a bit before dinner, and then after dinner we changed out the toys that are available downstairs. 

Friday the construction continued, as did the homeschooling. One thing I love about homeschooling is there is no hurry. We can do our work steadily through the morning, or take breaks after every single subject and spread things out through the whole day. Even better, my kids can each do what works best for them. I have one child who asked not to be woken up at 7am. They are fine with getting a later start with their work and doing things later than the other kids. I have another who is often doing their first subject by 7:30am. This evening we also did meal planning. While last week kids chose meals and helped cook pretty much every dinner, this week I chose new meals and will just call on helpers as needed. We're trying some new meals, and sticking with some old favorites too. 

Saturday we got back to our regular grocery shopping day. We also started pulling bins of clothing from the attic, going through what we have, and seeing what may need bought as the seasons change. We made it through four kids: Rebekah, Oliver, Daniel, Emma. 

Sunday our morning started with church at home. For our lesson, we did an activity the related to one of the verses from our Book of Mormon scripture study this week, Helaman 5:12:

"And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the ^arock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your ^bfoundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty ^cstorm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall."

We had a box of Duplos and a box of cards and kids divided into two groups. Half built a house with the blocks, half built with cards - or tried to. We discovered it took very little wind or movement to cause the card houses to come tumbling down. After the first round, teams switched building materials. We had some good discussion about foundations, buildings, and the storms of life. We sang a fun Primary song with hand motions with the little kids about the Wise Man and the Foolish Man, which comes from Matthew 7:24-27 in the Bible. 

Dinner tonight was new, and a hit. We made cheeseburger sliders with this recipe. It was delicious. The only thing we did differently is use a vegan mayo, because of Joseph's egg allergy. We also video chatted with Makayla, which we do pretty much every day or two. She starts classes on Monday and will have a full course load (19 credits), be a TA (teacher's assistant), and is excited for it all. 

Monday morning was full of math lessons. Samuel was working with yards, feet, and inches, going through the house measuring things and people. Mason learned to multiply by 4. Caleb learned to divide by 3s and 5s. Oliver worked with decimals. Daniel was factoring equations. Emma and Joseph were working with angles and drawing angles in geometry. 

Our construction crew returned to pour concrete, which was very entertaining for the kids. We are getting closer to a completed wheelchair ramp. 

Tuesday is one of Daddy's long days at work. Okay, so all of them are long. (3:30am-6:30pm or later) The homeschool morning kicked off on a bit of a slower start, with kids not rolling out of bed until 7am or later. Everyone ate breakfast, did morning chores, and got to work. Mid-morning our construction crew returned to remove wood molds from the concrete and attach the small metal ramp we need on the enclosed porch to our door. 

In meal planning last weekend, I was kind to myself. Tuesday always seems like an extra long day, being the first day of the week Daddy is back to work. I planned super simple meals. Lunch was sandwiches or leftovers. Dinner was pita pizzas - which are easy. I toss a bunch of pitas on big baking sheets and kids come add their own toppings. A few minutes in the oven and dinner is ready. 

Several of the boys have been creating characters for their Hero Kids game. They draw the characters, create their information card with abilities, defenses, etc, and make a paper figure for the game board. It is interesting to see their creations.

Wednesday morning I was happily surprised to hear Caleb cheering when he realized it was a history day. We do science Mon/Tues and history Wed/Thur/Fri. He was excited to hear the next chapter in our read aloud to find out what would happen next with Madoc the slave boy. It was a great chapter and the kids are fully invested in what is happening. They are also finding it interesting to see what civilizations were in power during different events in biblical history, as we cross over some of that with Mesopotamia, Assyria, and Babylon. 

The morning sped away helping kids with various lessons, as usual. I pretty much don't look up from helping until lunch time. Today our house smelled wonderfully because of my older kids. I love having older kids, because they bake! My 15yo son made four loaves of banana bread. The 14yo daughter, who loves all things Lord of the Rings, made a double batch of Lembas bread. The 12yo was dinner chef, and made cinnamon rolls from scratch.

Thursday breakfast was leftover cinnamon rolls and banana bread. School happened slow and steady through the morning. We have been slowly listening to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban over lunch and we are close to the end of the book. Mason is discovering it all for the first time, and it has been so fun to watch as the story unfolds. Our afternoon had a quick library pick up and then some robot drawing using Ralph Masiello's Robot Drawing Book as inspiration. Dinner was a new recipe - orange chicken and rice. I breaded and fried chunks of chicken breast in oil, made an orange sauce, and used my handy rice cooker to make 8 cups of rice. Dinner was delicious! 

Friday dawned cloudy but kids were cheerful. We read another chapter in Slave Boy in Judea for history and the kids gathered around the table to notebook about some of the history topics we've studied recently. Today kids wrote/illustrated about the Neo-Babylonian empire, the wall of Babylon, the Ishtar gate, the hanging gardens, King Nebuchadnezzar II's rule, the destruction of Jerusalem, the temple of Solomon, and the captivity of the Hebrews, among other things. 

It is almost lunch time, so I'm going to hit publish and go enjoy our Friday.

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.