A New School Year Begins

As is tradition we started school this week since Brett started going back full time for meetings! Students start next week for him. 

I did the bulk of my prep work throughout the summer and only had a a handful of work to do last minute.  I, as always, underestimated the amount of time I would need, and also underestimated what I would be capable of 2 weeks after having a baby. 

Our first week this year hasn't been ideal, or even close!  In fact at the end of Day 1 I was quite serious in my appeal to my husband when I asked if we could maybe hire both a tutor and a nanny.  It was *that* good of a day.  Oh dear! My poor husband. He and I had a meeting the evening of the first day and re-thought my approach for this year.  The rest of the week has been getting better and better each day.  Today (day 4) is a little bit of an exception since I had a big day and evening yesterday and had to take my 3 week postpartum self to bed because I clearly had overdone things.  Ugh.  I did get a chance to work with the kiddos who need me before I called it quits for the day so that's good. 

So, without further ado....the obligatory "back to school" photos:

 I'm not doing any formal anything with Isabella this year or next year.  She is sporting a backwards dress-up dress in the above picture.  She's been doing a good job of just going along with whatever we're doing.  She's part of "Ora Time" and our read aloud every day, but beyond that she just plays. When she asks to do school I hand her a piece of paper and a pair of scissors and tell her to cut. 

 Marciana is quite easily the brightest little one we have.  She is always thinking (and always expressing whatever it is that she's thinking).  Last year she taught herself all the numbers and letters and started sounding out words.  With my "Kindergarteners" I usually just focus on teaching how to read and basic math skills.  However, this one always wants to be "doing school" so she's doing science with us and history when she feels like it. 

 Felicity is plugging away where she left off last year.  I'll write more about this later, but the short story is that she's clearly not at "grade level" (whatever that means).  She's making great progress already this year.  I think this will be the year she really takes off.

Veronica has grown so much over the summer.  She is mostly doing independent work, only joins me for a little science this year.  She's a list-checker-offer and a rule follower, which is awesome, except for when the pages assigned for her history reading don't line up with the book!  Oops.

Gianna is just a fraction shorter than Emma. If we hadn't switched to a virtual charter school (more on that later) a few years ago she would be in 8th grade, but alas, she has a February birthday so the grade level for her age it is.  She'll be taking clarinet this year and Brett will still teach her piano. She's ready to be "farmed out", but Brett is having too much fun with her.

Emma is loving her classes this year so far. She especially is enjoying the British Literature course she's doing. It starts with Beowulf so if she's already liking it I'll consider that a bonus (not a favorite story of mine) She'll start orchestra in a couple of weeks.  She made the top youth orchestra this year and will be playing piccolo and flute. 

We all laughed when I took these pictures because I'm pretty sure every year Aidan makes the same silly face, and every year I tell him I'm going to post it. 

That's better. A big junior this year! We've recently started discussing future plans which is a bit surreal as I sit and snuggle a newborn, trying to wrap my mind around my first baby leaving home. Aidan has his driver's permit and will hopefully get his last driving time in and take his test soon.  We are really in no hurry to have him drive (or to pay for insurance).

And then there's Ephraem. Although he's as sweet as can be and we all love him dearly, he's not the happiest baby we've had.  We're still figuring each other out and I know we'll get into a good routine soon.

He's Here!

Introducing Ephraem Andrew!

He's 8lbs. of deliciousness!  This sweet baby has already carved out a huge spot in our family, and we're all absolutely madly in love with him!

He was baptized at just 5 days old (other than Felicity, I think that's the youngest).  His godfather (far right), will be leaving soon to study Canon Law in Canada and we wanted to make sure he was here for the Baptism!  It was beautiful and wonderful and the smell of chrism has just now faded a bit.  

I'm trying my hardest to rest and recover from this little man's entrance.  I'm finding myself getting a wee bit impatient, and wanting to just jump back into life, but I am trying to take the time I need to care for myself...having a sweet baby to snuggle with all day sure does help! 

Stuck

The above is a picture of our way into town.  A couple nights ago we had a monster storm that dumped nearly a foot (!!!!!!) of rain on us.  We went into town the next morning for Mass, but as we crossed this bridge and another further north I wondered aloud to Brett if he thought we should even be going to town.  We went to Mass and booked it home.  Sometime that night, with no extra rainfall, the bridge gave way.  There is rumor that a detour has been established, but no official word on where that is. We have a lake and large state park to get around so it's looking like we may have to go a handful miles south in order to get to a place where we can go north.  Might double the amount of time it takes to get to town.  Looks like I'll be hanging out at home quite a bit this summer since I'm also not convinced that our big van is going to make it very far on the detour road, which is a horrible road under good conditions.

I'm so very grateful that we are all safe, our house stayed dry, and I'm not due to have this baby boy for another 6 weeks or so.  I've already had a chat with him about staying put until his official eviction date.  I'm pretty sure he'll obey.  Pretty sure that bridge will be out for the rest of the summer, but at least by then there will be a clear and established way to get to town.

And this photo is of the smaller of the two waterfalls that are near us.  Usually there are two distinct stream/small falls going down the rock face.  What rock face you say?  Exactly!  Shortly after taking this picture we saw a huge tree fly over the falls.  Pretty incredible! 

November Check In

I didn't take these photos too long ago, but our yard looks completely different now.  Our first snow, which is generally a dusting, ended up being over a foot.  A lot has melted, but it's winter now for sure.  Getting a picture of all seven of these kids looking their best is absolutely impossible.  First of all, I'm not a photographer.  I'm a mom with a camera, which is close, but I don't have an artistic eye and I'm usually feeling pretty lucky if people are at least in focus.  Second of all, they're kids. 

Little Miss Bella is the star of the show these days.  She's fun, and playful, and cute, and just an absolute delight.  Her facial expressions are hilarious and her desire to hang with the big kids is adorable. 

Marci remains the most independent kid we have ever had.  She is driven and smart and focussed.  She observes things that most kids would never notice and is the first to want to help.  She loves "doing school" with the big kids and got extremely offended one time when I suggested that cutting a piece of paper "was" school.  

Felicity continues to do everything her own way in her own time, God bless her!  She is the leader of the pack (her two younger sisters) and is quick to give a random hug or compliment.  She doesn't always love school, but get's motivated when she gets to do "tricky stuff".  

Nica is a favorite amongst her little sisters and will oftentimes play with them for hours.  She loves when she gets to stay up late with the big kids and read or hang out with us.  She thrives off of affirming words and is always making sure she is doing everything "just right". 

Gianna is loved by all. Truly.  We often joke with her about her "fan club" at karate.  It seems that every kid always wants to be her partner.  Can't blame them really.  She's quick to get up and get going in the morning and will make breakfast for anyone who comes into the kitchen demanding requesting something to eat.

Emma has been and will forever be the peacemaker in our house.  She's kind and sweet and thoughtful.  Don't let that fool you into thinking she's a pushover though.  She has a famous "Hmmm..." you'll hear whenever she disagrees with you, but doesn't want to be rude about it.  She will sweetly play along with her sisters even when they don't ask her to and has made a name for herself as the resident banana bread baker (but don't ask her to cook anything, trust me).

Aidan is becoming less kid and more man every day as he approaches 16!  What?!?  He recently completed driver's ed and it won't be long before he's behind the wheel.  His sisters love it when he humors them by filming something and turning it into a movie.  He's the resident artist and film-maker.  He's been working on a project with a friend of ours that will be released soon.  I love it when he laughs and has a great sense of humor.

Last but not least...duck.  We find duck in the most unusual places doing the most unusual things.  We haven't figured  out what inspires duck to be so duck-like, but we all love duck's "quack, quack" and soft, squishy cheeks. 

We've had a few transitions this fall, but I think we're at a good place now.  Not that we were at a bad place before, but being in the midst of a transition is never very enjoyable.  Brett is chairing his department at work, which is basically a fancy way of saying he has a different title and a lot more responsibility.  There have been a few fires to put out and currently there's a bit of an uproar on campus.  Without going into too many details I'll just say that it's been more than a little stressful, but I want to say that we're handling it well.  There's not a lot we can do about most things anyway so we'll just keep plugging on and doing our best. 

Let's talk Lice!

So there we were, chugging along beautifully in our brand new school year.  We were waking up to alarms, getting our chores done, working hard on academics, what could possibly go wrong?

What could go wrong?  Well....let's see....we could maybe, just perhaps, quite possibly discover that our entire family (minus 3) was infested with lice!!!!!!! I will spare you the details about how this was discovered and where we got it.  Let's just say that dealing with lice on 6 people (all girls with long, long, some very thick and long hair) is absolutely as awful as it sounds like it would be.

I was absolutely horrified at our discovery and will admit to shedding tears over the ordeal!  I realize that anyone can get lice, but I've been a mom for almost 16 years and have never even considered it a possibility!  The homeschooling family with lice?  What in the world?!?!

We spent fourteen hours on day one cutting and treating everyone's hair.  It took six hours in the morning of day two and three that evening.  We've spent a little less time each day, but we are still checking everyone over and talk about what we're going to do with our time when we are no longer staring at each others' heads. I contacted anyone I knew that had any experience with lice and we have been so very diligent with everything for almost two full weeks that if we haven't completely gotten rid of it for good I'm shaving heads and burning my house down!

This Wednesday is technically the two week mark, but if everyone says check for two weeks I'm going to check for three!  Not only was this ordeal extremely expensive, but we have spent hours and hours and hours nit-picking, and checking, and washing things, and bagging things.  It has been an all-consuming endeavor to ensure these unwelcome guests are gone for good!

Back to School 2017

We had the best first week of school that we've ever had in the entire history of our homeschooling! We had such a great week in fact that I didn't even take a single picture until the second day of the second week.

I did something this year that I haven't done before, at least not successfully.  I planned out our entire year.  I know, I know, that's a recipe for disaster usually.  It's very un-"Teaching from Rest" and Sarah Mackenzie just might have my neck if she found out about my year-long plans.  I'm totally kidding!

What I've learned from years of homeschooling this crew is that I simply don't get the time to plan as we go.  In years past I have planned out two weeks at a time and have told myself that I'm going to use the "extra" week to keep a week ahead in planning.  The reality of it is that I have a husband who has crazy hours at work and just isn't available much to give me time to plan.  It's true that my older kids can help out and I could technically use them to get time to plan, but I use them for more pressing matters, like menu planning or bill paying.

One thing I've become very good at is being okay with it if we get "off" of my plans.  They're my plans to begin with so there's no need to freak out if a couple kids are on Week 1 Day 3, but others are on Week 2 Day 1.  Whenever one of my checklist-loving kids starts getting worked up over being "off" I just say, "Do the next thing."  All will be well, just do the next thing, and then the next after that, and the next after that.  In the end we'll be fine, learning will happen, the world won't come crashing down around us, and if we need to take time to deal with something (stay tuned.....) then we will.  No biggie.

Baby Ducks

Baby ducks!  Quite possibly my favorite "pet" ever!  They are just so sweet and fun to watch.  

We had ducks a couple of years ago and they were, unfortunately, plucked off one by one by a bobcat.  I'm not positive that these guys will have a much different ending, but for now they are super fun and we are getting a lot of free(ish) entertainment from them. 

Isabella absolutely loves the ducks.  She wakes up every morning, and goes to the sliding glass door that is the entrance to our 3-season-room (where the ducks are living currently) and says, "Cheese. Ducks."  Cheese happens to be one of the ducklings names.  We have Cheese, Quackers, Patito, and Napoleon, who is so named because she's little and a little feisty.  

Almond the cat is probably the only local resident who is not impressed with our newest additions.

We are officially on summer break, except for a certain high schooler who needs to finish his Music Theory class.  This morning we woke up and went for a nice long hike right away.  The laundry is out on the line, the girls are playing in water on the deck, Aidan is sitting in a lawn chair reading, and most of ours days are filled with a lot of free time (more on that later).