Let's see if I can get back in the note taking habit!  Saturday kicked off with an unexpected run to the urgent care near us with Mason. He woke up with a swollen area the size of my palm on his knee. It was hot to the touch, tight, and you could feel fluid under it. I always hesitate to take him to the local urgent care because he is so complex medically, but I was pretty confident in what needed checked and done temporarily to get us through to Monday when we could check in with his surgeon.  As any mama with a medically complex child will tell you, you have to be your child's adv ..read more

Monday's seminary lesson focused on temples. After that it was breakfast with the kids, then all sorts of math lessons. From radicals in Algebra 2 and angles in Geometry to mental math with a focus on different strategies to do two digit subtraction problems in your head, to equivalent fractions, we covered a lot of math. The kids all agree their favorite subject today was science. The younger boys experimented with mirrors and illusions. The older kids built working wooden cranes with several pulley options.  Another thing we have been doing every day is watching some of the Paralympic G ..read more

Random photo on my phone for dog appreciation day - no real dogs here thanks to allergies, but lots of  stuffed animals. Monday kicked off with our first day of seminary for the school year. At 6:10am I was surrounded by teens who make the time to show up each morning before school to study the scriptures together. It is so neat to be a part of this! After they headed to school at 7am the rest of my kids started drifting downstairs, ready for our school break. The plan for the week is to rest and do family time. One sad note, my grandmother passed away today. We love her and m ..read more

A couple of the boys are working on learning coding. Another week has come and gone. I wanted to quickly remind readers of a few things: Our weeks are very often repetitive. It's just a fact of this slow growing time we've chosen as we stepped off the education conveyor belt more than 15 years ago. It's the freedom of living a life less driven by other peoples' agendas and schedules. It also can get boring to read about. Check back in when you need a quiet read. Take a break when you don't.  The real reason I keep this blog is to keep a family journal of this precious time we ha ..read more

 First Week of the Homeschool Year Rebekah gathered a lot of  supplies when she was ready to  'read'. Monday, August 2nd, was pleasantly smooth for a first day back to homeschool. I woke up at 5:40am (no alarm, I'm just an early riser) and spent some time quietly eating, reading my scriptures, and putting away the clean dishes from my cooking/baking session on Sunday. At 7am I woke any kids still sleeping. The first hour of their morning is for waking up, eating breakfast, getting dressed, and doing a chore. At 8am everyone begins school, though some kids like to ..read more

Daniel finished this articulated albino catfish made from his imagination and a bin of Legos. We really have spent the end of July just soaking in the end of summer fun. Family time, visit to the park, walking trails, watching ducks, visiting the local science center, building, crafting, creating, and catching a show at the planetarium. We start back to school on Monday. Today I will be sharing about our curriculum plans.  Family Studies World Geography and Cultures  The high schoolers (11th, 10th) and one of the middle schoolers (8th) will be using Notgrass Exploring World ..read more

Sunday we celebrated Samuel's 8th birthday with our usual family party. His dessert of choice was cupcakes, and the icing covered faces on some of my younger kids were quite hilarious. We also enjoyed church and a rainstorm. Emma auditioning Monday Emma started Theater Camp. She spends a large chunk of each day at camp, with their performance on Friday. Today was a lot of warm ups, auditions, and casting. They will actually be doing two small plays. For one she got the role of Jack's mother (from Jack and the Beanstalk fame). This is a small part and something she was comfortable wit ..read more

Saturday morning we did our annual family tie dye day. Everyone had clothing already folded and rubberbanded, ready to dye. We always use Tulip dyes, and this year the kids chose two color packs: Celestial and Shark Island. A few hours and lots of fun later, we now have plastic bags of dye and clothing on the porch, curing for 24 hours. Tomorrow we will rinse and wash everything. Other things we did on Saturday: Grocery shopping Mailing a package Picking up library books Visiting with Grandma Grilling dinner Visiting with the missionaries Sunday morning we rinsed and washed all the tie d ..read more

Rebekah's mad face is ridiculously cute.  Monday kicked off with four dental cleanings and three eye check ups. Definitely a busy morning and afternoon! We also cleaned out refrigerators, Daniel made cinnamon rolls from scratch, and grilled hamburgers and hot dogs for dinner. We also did some review of Church History as a family. Tuesday the kids were excited for a big update to Minecraft to finally release. They play Minecraft on Kindles that only have access to each other's local games. All I've heard this afternoon are things about axolotls, caves, ore, and so on. Emma baked ..read more

The first day of June (Tuesday) the kids all signed up for the library's summer reading program and got a bag with crafty nature projects to work on this month, too. At home there was Lego building and dress up, baking and painting, and lots of relaxing. My middle boys had their last activity evening at the church before summer break. We always choose a few basics to keep our brains engaged and avoid the summer slide. It has been documented that in countries like the US where students have an extended break from school, students lose on average 20% of the gains in reading and 27% of the ..read more