Week in the Life {Sunshine!, World CP Day, Fall Leaf Art}

Sunday, October 4th

Evalynn and I stayed home from worship on Sunday, while Mike and the kids went.  I am really struggling with being able to focus on the message - or anything - during service with Evie.  It was really unfortunate that we were quarantined during some of the most precious months of child training.  She is not a lost cause, but sometimes, just sometimes, Mom is so weary.  So, she took her morning nap and I listened to an online message and sat in the utter beautiful quietness of my home trying to hear Jesus speak to my heart.  

After worship we had leftovers, and then the kids played while I finished lesson plans, menu planning, and then went grocery shopping for the month.  The store was very busy, and I will probably try to not go on a Sunday again, but I got it done.  As I did last month, I checked out twice - since I'm shopping for the whole month for 7 people it's just easier to have 2 very full carts than one absolutely heaped over.  I needed far less than last month, though, and the store I went to was out of quite a bit of our "normal" things that I'll have to grab at Wal-Mart later this month.

Monday, October 5th

We had a field trip planned for Monday afternoon and friends coming over to eat lunch before the field trip, but we still had a couple of hours before all of that to keep ourselves occupied. Zayden was struggling to not be too wild, so he sat down and did a little reading to help pass the time. 

Our field trip was a blast and earned it's own blog post.

The Sniders came over to visit a bit after the field trip, and then we had supper and got our kids snuggled into bed with tired bodies and happy hearts.

Tuesday, October 6th

Happy World Cerebral Palsy Day!  We all wore green to support our CP warrior, Natalee!

After a fun day Monday, we settled in to get some work done on Tuesday.  The weather was warm again this week and the sunshine sure helps to keep us motivated.

Zayden got to start learning about place value this week.  He's such an amazing little student.  I'm always so impressed with his attention to his lessons given that he's so active all day long.

Mia got to start counting dimes and nickels in her math!  She remembered skip counting from last year and caught on quickly. 

My favorite thing at Autumn Acres was getting pumpkins.

Evalynn has started drinking her bottles of milk cold.  She's growing up a little every week.  She does actually drink oat milk, and still refuses to drink cow's milk, but drinking them cold is much easier for mom than warming them in warm water each time.  And no, I don't have a plan to take away the bottle.  Ask me another month.  (Did I blog that last week?  Can't remember - but if I did it's still true.)

Natalee and I stopped at a stand after her physical therapy session and picked up some sweet corn to eat with supper.  I think this was Evie's first experience and she was a fan.  She's been a finicky eater this week, so it was nice to give her something that satisfied her for more than 2 minutes.

We ended the night with Natalee saying, "mom, that bee sting I got yesterday is a little bit itchy."  Oofta, girl.  We gave her some meds and treated the area, and then Mike and I checked it again before we went to bed just to be cautious.  It went down over the next two days, but that bee must have had a vendetta.  

Wednesday, October 7th

Wednesdays are hippotherapy days, but this week before therapy we met some new friends at the park!  The Kleins have 4 children still at home, and we have some ages and genders that match up almost perfectly.  Coincidentally, though they've been in Iowa for around 8 years, they are actually from where we moved in Missouri, and I knew Shonya then, although I wasn't a homeschooling mom of many at that time!  They have a son just a couple weeks younger than Xavier, and a daughter within days of the same age as Ameliya, and then another daughter about a year older than Natalee, and a 14 year old son (& two older married children).  The kids had a great time playing and Shonya and I had such a good time catching up on each other's happenings - we filled our hour and a half time easily and have plans to meet up again.  We met in the town hippotherapy is in - on Wednesdays they have appointments in the same town and we both have a window from about 11-12:30.  I didn't take a single picture because I was too busy gabbing, but we hustled ourselves to hippotherapy and Natalee had a wonderful session.  She got to ride Chief outside and work in the beautiful sunshine.

I did a night school session with these cuties to work on our dinosaur lapbook.  Evie's naps are all messed up - she's not taking 2 naps a day very well but we can't find the right time for just one nap a day - anyways we needed Daddy to be home to run interference with that little magpie for us while we worked.

Speaking of little magpie - sigh.  She's just not really sleeping great anytime.

Wednesday was a terribly rough night.  After snuggling her back to sleep, Mike went back to the living room and worked until about 2 a.m.  Not too long after he came to bed Evie was up and just an absolute crab.  He needed to sleep so he could be up for work in a few hours, so I brought her to the living room and did what every good mom does...turned on the TV.

We watched one Fancy Nancy, had a bottle, and she settled back down and we went back to bed after that.  But mama, I sure did drag on Thursday.

Thursday, October 8th

A regular ole school morning!  Powered by coffee for mom, and a whole lotta prayers for patience.

Second lesson on place value and he's getting it already!  #smartie

We made it through school with mostly cheery attitudes.  The kids had their 2nd swim lesson after lunch and then we came home and they played well together until Daddy got home.

Xavier made pudding pies with graham cracker crusts for dessert for supper, and Evie sure enjoyed her first taste of pudding.

Bowl licking good.

Evie slept better Thursday night than the night before.  I was grateful.

Friday, October 9th

Fun Friday!

The kids had pumpkin spice bagels for breakfast.  Zayden chose to have salted caramel cream cheese on his - he loves fall foods!

After breakfast I got everyone around and we went on a walk to collect beautiful fall leaves.  My sister sent me an art idea that I thought would be perfect for fun Friday and we needed leaves for it!

This beauty is around the block from our house.  Then we walked to campus where they have great yellow and orange leaves - we got there just in time - the lawnmower was getting ready to mulch those!  We said hello to our favorite tech guy while we were there but didn't loiter - the school was preparing for their spring commencement that got postponed until now.

Look, kids!  I got one!

I gave the kids these two options for inspiration when we got home, and turned them loose with their buckets of leaves and my assistance as needed.

Xavier chose the first project, while the girls decided to do the owls.  Zayden struggled to be content with our projects - or life - when we got home, and had to reset himself in his room for a few minutes before he was able to decided what he wanted to do.

Evie wanted up up up to see what was happening so I helped her glue some leaves.

Zayden chose to make an owl when he came out.  I squeezed glue for him and talked with him about his beautiful leaves while he worked.

These turned out pretty darn cute if I do say so.

After art we had lunch and then a couple kids rested and a couple played before swim lessons. 

After lessons we came home and we all played outside in the beautiful weather until suppertime.

Saturday, October 10th

Daddy had to work the commencement at campus, but he didn't have to go in until mid morning.  He made breakfast and filled up Evie's tiny love tank with a tickle session before he left.

Evie likes daddy to help her with somersaults.  

Good-bye handsome Daddy.  Have a good day at work.

After Mike left Zayden sat down at the table and said, "guess I get to finish Daddy's coffee!"  And he did. 

Our day consisted of housework and laundry and make Grandma Betty's banana cookies.  

Jace came over to play and the kids had a soccer match in the backyard.  After he went home we stopped by his house to drop off some of the cookies - I didn't want to send them with on his bike.  Natalee and Lizzie did a book trade and the kids played a bit before we ran a couple more errands and came home for showers, supper, and bed.

The weather was beautiful this week and we're so thankful we got to bank some vitamin D among our busy week!