How about a bit of randomness for this Week in Review? It has been a good week overall with the usual bumps along the way. One unusual thing is we had more out of the house things to do in the evenings this week, as you’ll see.
Medical Monday – While the children and Daddy did homeschool Mommy visited the dentist (ouch) and had a prenatal checkup 45 minutes away. Pregnancy goes along fine, more contractions because we’re winding down toward the home stretch in July. Baby seems to delight in laying any way but the right one. He’s shifted from transverse (sideways) to breech (head up). As I’m aiming for a VBAC after my c-section with Mason this little one needs to turn head down before July.
We started our Children’s Book Week celebration with a new family read aloud – The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place Book I: The Mysterious Howling.
Tuesday Heats Up – Homeschool moved along smoothly. Typing is one of our summer subjects and the kids are enjoying it. Lots of reading is happening at our house. I shared about our summer reading plans on the blog along with a free printable.
Tuesday also had Makayla joining the Young Women from church in a camp fundraising project. They planted tons of flowers at an apartment complex. It was the first youth activity she’s gone to. In our church youth group begins when you turn 12, and Makayla will be 12 in a few weeks. But as she is going to Girl’s Camp in July she gets to participate in any camp clinics or fundraisers now.
Wednesday We Roasted – Again, we had a nice normal day for homeschool. I shared some free Kindle children’s books on the blog, one of which was insect poetry. We read several poems from the book this day and enjoyed one about a fly the most.
That evening Joseph had a Cub Scout orienteering and hike activity at Dawes Arboretum. While I had planned to take the other six children to explore Dawes with Grandma a broken down motorcycle left me on my own for that. It was 84 and hot! Picture a very pregnant mom hiking around the swamp and woods pushing a stroller and surrounded by five more children in the heat. Ugh. The kids were happy though. We even saw a frog, a salamander, lots of eggs in the swamp, dragonflies, birds, and other bugs, plus a lot of plants.
We only had one first aid incident, Caleb fell and got a piece of leaf in his eye. Some water from a waterbottle and a persistent mommy got it out. By the end of the evening I was having contractions and just ready to go home. Daddy arrived straight from work, picked up the six non-cub scouts, and took them home for showers while I waiting for Joseph to return from the hike. It was heavenly to just sit quietly for a bit…LOL.
Thunder Thursday – We had storms in the middle of the night that woke half of my children. The children made adorable Corner Bookmark Monsters and I shared a tutorial on the blog Friday. The bookmarks encouraged even more reading and lots of art while crafting their creatures.
Mommy got a fun break she desperately needed that evening. Daddy got home in time for Mommy to go to a Relief Society activity with Grandma. Yummy food and lots of visiting and laughs. I think it’s the first Thursday RS activity I’ve made it to in 6 months or more!
Family Friday – Daddy didn’t have work today! It was wonderful! The whole family worked through homeschool together. The Children’s Book Week highlight today was beginning our own children’s books. I shared a tutorial for book binding on the blog too, in case your children want to write their own books. They’ve brainstormed their stories on a sheet of paper and have begun writing those in their books and illustrating as they go. Stories have mice, dragons, and a special tree.
The children are playing outside now except for Mason who is still napping. The next plan for our evening is making cinnamon rolls from scratch for dinner and then family scripture study. We may even finish the evening off with games or a movie. We’ll see!
Mason Updates
I shared an honest post on his blog this week about life in the valley of special needs.
He’s doing well this week, though we discovered he is still allergic to soy. He isn’t talking beyond baby babble but is getting pretty opinionated. He’s beginning to refuse purees and prefer solids, points to what he wants, and insists you pay attention to where he wants to be and help him get there.
Next week he has surgery on his back. It’s outpatient, just plastic surgery to smooth out the extra skin on his back scar so it won’t catch on his clothing so much (which hurts, it’s a really sensitive spot for Mason). That will throw in some twists for physical therapy, sleep positions, braces and stander use, etc until it heals.
That’s all for us! Have a wonderful weekend and check out Collage Friday, which this post is linked to.
