Sunday morning was spent at worship at Two Timbers.
Evie could not contain herself with Baby Haddyn around and Chelsea was very kind. She loves her so much.
Mike stayed for a meeting and I brought the kids home to start them a lunch of leftovers and finish up some printing and computer work for camp registration before we left for camp.
I thought we left for camp quite early but it turned out that one of the times parents are early is when they are leaving their kids for a week. Registration and check in was to begin at 4 and we were already well underway by 3.
Mike ran our kids to town for supper while Xavier ate with the campers and I waited for one last little guy to check in before finishing up my paperwork.
We stayed to listen to our friend, Zach, share the evening's message.
He chose Xavier to illustrate a point of having to carry a heavy load without help and Xavier refused to give up, but he did admit that it was heavy!
After the chapel service we said good bye to our boy and headed to Sonic with Zach and Chelsea for ice cream for the kids and supper for the rest of us.
It was a full day and a late night.
Monday was unscheduled. That felt nice. Several of us slept in after not having gotten to bed until 11 or later the night before. I always feel unsettled when one of the kids is out of the house. I honestly didn't want to do camps this year, but I know that's my anxiety, not theirs, and it's something I'm trying to combat. I ended up on the couch in the early hours of the morning and was awakened by little girls trying to be very quiet reading books.
This one was a meltdown a minute on Monday. Nap time felt good!
Ameliya built a cool Lego couch from some plans in a book that I'd picked up at a library book sale. The kids have really enjoyed that book!
Monday was very rainy. We were supposed to have ball games and I was sure that we wouldn't. In fact, at 4:45 I was hollering for Zayden to get his gear on because it had stopped raining but we hadn't been canceled!
Mike ran to get Xavier for his 8 o'clock game in a neighboring town, while I took the other kids to Zayden's 5:30 game. Zayden got into a bit of a slump and had to use the tee for both of his at bats. He was bummed but we assured him if he did his best that's all he could do. He was exhausted Monday and I also should have had him nap.
Camp caught us kind of off guard being so early this year and I don't know if we handled things properly going to get Xavier for his ball games. It certainly was timely and with the gas prices, costly. We felt like he'd made a commitment to his team and this was their last week of regular season. Regardless, we did what we did and Mike was a champ taking him to and fro.
I brought the four kids I had home and got everyone showered and ready for bed (we'd eaten before baseball).
(Evie's favorite song - You've Always Been by the Christian band Unspoken)
I waited up for my boys to get home. Since Xavier's game didn't get over until 9:30, we had planned for Mike to just bring him home for the night and then he took him back before he went to work the next morning.
Tuesday morning I got up early and was listening to my daily Scriptures on audio Bible. I'd been up about ten minutes before my sidekick came trotting in. Sigh. I love her. But she's sticky like Velcro. She sat up on the step stool and watched me get the scrambled eggs done.
Natalee had early morning therapy on Tuesday and Mike got back from taking Xavier to camp in time to take her to her therapy before he went to work at 8. He was super dad.
With a good breakfast in their bellies, we packed some snacks and headed to a new to us park in a nearby town for mom's group play time.
{playing Red Rover}
The park had a nice play set that Evie was able to safely play on, so that was quite nice.
We came home in time for Evalynn to take her nap at home. It was a challenge to keep her awake as we drove and I finally let her play bubble pop on my phone for the last 6-7 minutes to keep her eyes from drooping. It worked and she took a good nap! This week saw a lot of game time from the kids! (scrabble, jr.)
Tuesday evening I headed out to the sushi recipe in a nearby town to have supper with 3 other friends. We were supposed to have a book discussion, but we seemed to chat about life more than the book. It was so so good for my soul.
Mike held down the fort at home and made tenderloins with salads for the kids at home.
Wednesday morning I set aside a couple of hours to write letters to five children in a Ugandan orphanage. The four older kids had also written letters and they were allowed to send any gifts that fit in a white business envelope (their assigned child was their age and gender). Zayden sent his own fidget spinner and warmed my heart. We filled our envelopes full of bracelets, necklaces, little notebooks and stickers, fidgets, and anything else we could think of to send and spread joy, packaged it all in a manila envelope and got them on their way.
Wednesday evening was another ball game evening. Papa and Grandma Tallman came up and ballgame'd with us. I took Zayden to his 5:30 game with the other children and Mike went to camp to get Xavier. Both games were at home this week.
Between games Papa got pizzas and they brought them to the house. I got the youngest two showered before we headed back to the fields for Xavier's game.
Xavier struck out at bat, but got to play catcher, third base, and pitch for a little bit.
This was his last regular season game.
Xavier came home with us for the night and got a good shower and a belly full of pizza before bed.
Mike and Xavier were up and out early the next morning, bless them. The other kids got up and got their check lists done. There was no hippotherapy this week, so we didn't have to leave for appointments in the morning. I spent some time with my planner, calling and emailing our professionals to set up appointments for the upcoming months. The kids faced a little "boredom" this day with one less person in their mix for entertainment. I made some suggestions and Zayden ended up choosing the Snap Circuits to play with. These kept his focus for over and hour and would have for longer if Ameliya hadn't invited him to play something else. He got them back out Friday for quite a long time.
I love watching brains.
Mike took Ameliya to her speech session over his lunch break. I did a lot of reading this week, as did the other children.
I splurged on a sno cone machine that is suitable for a family our size and guests if we have them. I got it out on Thursday and we had sno cones after supper. Honestly, we'd had chicken and noodles, mashed potatoes, green beans, corn, and Natalee had made biscuits and brownies, so we were hardly hungry, even for sugar water, but it was still a fun treat and we've used it several times since.
I was able to find dye free sno cone syrups, which is part of what made this all a huge win. Our kids have never had a sno cone because they always have dye at regular places.
Friday finally came. This week felt long for some reason. Friday morning didn't hold much excitement. I excused the kids from their school items on their checklists in favor of doing a good job on their chores/zones. Mike worked half a day and then went to camp one last time to collect our boy for good.
Xavier received the master craftsman award for perfecting his knots at camp. We are very pleased with the young man that we see glimpses of him becoming. He said he did a lot of dishes after meals this week because he was one of the few that "did them well." I told him he could thank me for all the good training (wink).
Mike and Xavier weren't home but a little over an hour before we all loaded up and headed our for a fun night of homeschool softball. This group has been meeting every Friday for a few weeks now but we weren't able to join in. It was brought to my attention that our schedule was free this Friday (and upcoming Fridays) AND that our friends, the Weltes, were in town and going to be there, so we really felt like we'd won the lottery. What a bucket filling night, honestly.
Everyone had a good time, but Natalee especially had a blast, and that alone warmed me through.
Everyone jested in love at the back of the bus that was able to keep producing chairs for friends. LOL. It's kind of like a clown car.
All three of us have spent our time in northeast Missouri. Shonya, on my right, left before my homeschooling time, but was actually one of the first homeschoolers that I recall meeting in the area, back when we scrapbooked together for a season (mostly when I tagged along with my sister). Shela, on my left, was one of the first homeschoolers to invite me into her circle. Shela and Shonya homeschooled around the corner from each other for years and are lifelong friends, and Shonya invited us into the co-op we currently attend and has been a wonderful friend as we've tried to figure out Iowa. What a season we are in. If God would put us all three in one area at the same time we might just be too much. LOL. I am thankful for these friendships.
Oh how we miss these friends.
It seems that the "big boys" slunk off instead of posing for photos. Stinkers!
One of my dearest homeschool mentors and friends.
God painted us this sunset to drive home to, and it was just gorgeous. What a view.
Saturday I woke up and somehow got inspired to really get to work in the girls' room. I know it's difficult for three girls of varying ages to share a space, but with some good systems in place it is not impossible. We started by emptying and sorting out the nightstand that was in there (we'd already pared down to just the one with drawers) and putting it in the garage. I have ordered a tall metal rolling cart to put beside Natalee's bed and a shorter one to put beside the bunk beds to serve as more individual nightstands. Giving the girls their own space for certain things when we can seems to help.
Mia really needed help weeding down her things - both her memory type items and some clothing items. We'd hit her closet and some of her clothes recently, but hadn't done socks, undies, swim suits, etc, and she even found another Wal-Mart sack of clothes to give away on the county's free Facebook page. She had a 5T swim suit in her drawer. That's my fault.
We worked hard.
We sucked dust.
We purged.
We sorted.
We washed bedding.
We ended up turning Natalee's bed around and we'll just see how we like it. The bunk beds cannot be moved because county renter laws dictate that nothing can block the windows. We gave each of the older girls a shelf for their mini American girl dolls so they could be displayed instead of put in a tote. Last weekend Mike had raised the shelf and hanging bar in the girls' closet and that is helping tremendously with vertical space and things being less congested. I had prepared Evalynn for two days that we were going to go through her bed and sort out her dollies and stuffies. She had almost 20 things in there to sleep with and had been sleeping horizontally to fit all her "things." We allowed her to keep her cradle in her room with two dollies in it and three things in her bed. We also brought the princess pictures that Nannie made years ago for Natalee down from above Mia's bed and put them in Evalynn's bed alcove.
I'd like to exchange the black fan for a more slender one. They don't really need the fan but like the noise even though they have a noise machine.
While we were working our rears off cleaning, Mike finished assembling the shelving we purchased for the basement. He took Evalynn along with him, which was a huge help, and he said she was so good and such a big helper to him! We need maybe two more boxes, Mike thinks, to get all our things properly sorted and organized, but this is an excellent start. I think there's a few I could go through and do some more purging...but not today. These shelving units are an investment for sure so we won't get more just now unless we are able to find them used. Another time.
Mike also had the boys at the hair salon while we girls cleaned. Zayden decided on his own to have his hair cut. I'm thankful to see his face but also thankful I let this thing be no big deal and let him decide. He doesn't love the feeling of getting his hair cut and I know this was a big choice for him. In theory, he was growing it out for a "man bun." In reality he didn't like the sensory feeling of having it pulled back either and so it has just gotten longer and longer. But he is pleased with his new cut and made sure we sent a picture to Theo!
You can see on his face how hard hair cuts are for him.
I love your face, buddy. So glad to see all of it.
Afternoon sno cones. Natalee had already had hers.
Natalee and Xavier warmed up leftover chicken and noodles and fixings for supper while I finished the little things in the girls' room that I could do tonight. We navigated several behaviors today and so after catching up on our World Watch news and having a quick family meeting, the big kids played a round of Dutch Blitz and everyone went to bed early.
Think she'll stay in it all night??
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