what's up weekly. (with vacation! and laurelai's birthday! and juniper wearing a mustache!)

Wkka-wkka-wkka, y'all.  It's Friday.  You may have thought I died, since I didn't post last week, but you know I wouldn't go down that easy and not at least blog my goodbyes first.  And honestly, the longer I'm a parent, the more I really believe I may not ever die, because if I can survive being the point of contact for a toddler with simultaneous e. coli and salmonella, etc. etc., what else can touch me, really?  Bring on the zombie apocalypse; ain't no thang.

Anyway.  We went on vacation, which has been the major news over this last stretch of radio silence.  We left earrrrrrly last Friday morning and spent the day on the road to the Black Hills to visit Todd's parents.  I'm hoping to get some posts written about our time there, since there's way too much to cover in a Friday update that's supposed to cover two whole weeks anyway!  But the general nutshell version of vacation was: hot dang, I needed that.

First, we all adore Road Trip Day.  We make a whole thing of it: I fill the kids' backpacks with surprises, we make super fun stops along the way, we have a good soundtrack, and Todd and I get so many hours to just chat and be together without the same kind of interruption that happens in the day-to-day.  Road Trip Day is seriously one of the best days of the year.

It's the day where we pull shenanigans like overshadowing a sunrise over the Badlands.  And put fake mustaches on tiny, unamused infant babies (and each other).  And admire just how majestic the Kraken looks in front of a picturesque sunset.

Do these finger guns make my mustache look like it's trying too hard?  Or like it's not trying hard enough?  It's hard to tell with these things.

Second, we always love our time up there with Todd's family.  It's a highlight of the kids' year, and I know they're making memories that will last their whole lives.  Memory making is something that I'm becoming increasingly passionate about - Edith Schaeffer points out that time is fleeting; the only way to 'keep' it is to take it with us into the future through memories.  I want to give our kids the gift of a deep well of memories.

Third, I have been absolutely dreading the start of the school year.  For weeks before we left, I would honestly lie awake at night with this weight on my chest, wracking my brain for solutions to the myriad tensions I foresaw cropping up with our homeschool routines this coming year.  Stepping away did me a world of good, and it weirdly helped that we jumped into school like immediately upon our return.  I spent our vacation relaxing my mind a bit, and then I never had ample time to get anxious again before just jumping into the fray.

Which leads me to our other major activity around here over the last two weeks: we started school.  You guys.  I am four days in and it is kicking my butt.  My body hurts at the end of the day!  How does teaching first grade math from the comfort of my own couch make my body hurt?  I am really excited for the stuff we'll be covering this year, and I do really think we'll settle into an easier pace once we hit our groove, but it is a bit insane right now.  I'd like to post soon on what our school days look like - we're just a hive of activity over here!

Why is no one listening to me during Morning Basket?  Oh yeah, because Juniper is the fan favorite.

Math movie for little kids.  Callista is learning about place values.

And yesterday, in the throes of our week, Laurelai turned six years old.  I will post about this sweet little ray of sunshine next week, but for now, let me just say that she chose Lucky Charms for her birthday breakfast, and that is a pretty good indicator of her personality.

She conked out during Story Club.  I don't know if it's because growing is such hard work, or if she is just suffering from Acute SugarCrashiosis after requesting three meals consisting mostly of unopposed carbohydrates, and getting gummy bears for dessert.

Now, on to tackle Friday.  Laurelai's birthday present should be arriving in the mail today (new bedding! for her new, gorgeous, antique Big-Girl bed!  SO excited for her to receive this gift!) and we're indulging in Friday School, which is more slow-paced than the rest of the week and basically like a day-long tea party where we chat over composers and artists and poetry and world maps.  It's all very too-too and just what this weary Van Voorst clan needs in order to end the week strong.

first day of school 2019!

Well.  Yesterday was our first full day of the school year, and I can say this much: glory, hallelujah, we survived it.

This school year is projected to be crazy insane.  The big kids are adding more subjects, which requires more oversight from me and more time from all of us, and the middle kids are starting their first full year, which is incredibly hands-on for me.

Yesterday entailed nine straight hours of direct instruction or meal prep.  No breaks.  It was exhausting.  And not just for me; by the end of the day, Atticus was so tired he was sobbing.  I fully expect things to get easier once we all hit our groove, but hot dang.  It took every ounce of everything we had.

It doesn't help that we just got back from vacation on Friday, so I'm behind on cleaning and laundry, and the kids caught some kind of bug while we were gone, so they're under the weather.  (Atticus skipped lunch and took a five hour nap on Saturday, due to a fever and extreme nausea, which may explain away some of today's episode.)  It is just rough timing.  But I'm learning that the timing is never convenient so you might as well just jump in now.

But we did have some successes!  Penelope is in love with our new routine, and the younger kids were begging to do more math than was scheduled (we'll see how long that lasts, but I'll take it).  The big kids spent time reading the script of As You Like It while we listened along to the audio version, and they were absolutely enraptured.  I will definitely chalk that up to a win.

This should be a really fun school year once we're running smoothly, and I'm really glad to say we have Day One under our belts.  Bring on the next Thirty Six Weeks Minus One Day.

it's time for the weekly 'what's up,' and juniper at four months.

So, it's official.  We're not starting school until the end of August, because I am just not mentally prepared for it.  So we spent the week getting our new chore routine locked down, and then playing the day away.  (Mostly inside, because A. it was really hot out, and B. our immune systems have still not adjusted well to living in Missouri, and four of the kids were broken out in hives all week from something they got into outside.)

I'm working on finishing up a Bill Bryson book right now, which has taken most of my free time (The Road to Little Dribbling.  I've raved and guffawed over it before).  I also got back on track with my Bible read-through plan, which has been pretty spotty since Juniper was born.  I'm about a month behind, but still moving forward, and loving it.  My goal is to get caught up and still finish by the end of the year.

Finneas lost a tooth... and must have swallowed it, because one day he had a tooth there, and the next day he didn't, and no one seems to know what transpired in between.  His crooked smile is now even more crooked, since the one he lost is on the side of the previously missing tooth.  I'm really excited to see there's an adult tooth growing down in front.  He fell and hit his face when he was younger, which killed the baby tooth in front.  An abscess started to grow above the dead tooth on the gumline, so it had to be pulled, which is why he's been missing just that one tooth for so long.  I've had a few friends say that when their kids' baby teeth were damaged, damage was also caused to the adult tooth, and one friend even said her son didn't even end up having an adult tooth there at all.  So I'm glad to see one coming down!

Speaking of teeth, Atticus had an orthotropics appointment in Kansas City this week.  While they were adjusting his appliance, one of his teeth fell out.  Since it was a tooth that the appliance attached to, they're having to do some adjustments and he'll go back again in a month.  In the meantime, they've given him a night mouth guard to encourage proper jaw/TMJ development, which has taken some getting used to.  Also more cha-ching.  Braces are not cheap.  Todd never had braces, so we were hoping our kids would get his genes, but alas, they all seem to have my janky mouth genes, so it appears the orthodontist will be seeing a lot of us over the next decades.

The boys got haircuts and I can't believe how grown up they all look.  When, exactly, does time slow down?  Because that's how it works, right?

On Tuesday, a really amazing older woman from church came over to chat with me.  I have felt so, so blessed by the women in our church.  I know from my first floundering years of motherhood that mentors are not easy to come by, but since we've been here I have suddenly experienced older women being eager to pursue me and spend time with me.  One gal here even cut her work hours back for the sake of having more weekday hours available to disciple younger women.  I am just in awe of how our community is taking shape, and I am so grateful.  I have really felt a need for someone ahead of me in life to come alongside me and offer encouragement and counsel and accountability, and God has seen that need and provided for me here.  It's a good season.

As usual, Callista was living her Best Week Now.  Tube socks (that she stole from Finneas) and a "gackgack?"  You got it.

I got the bouncy seat out for Juniper.  This seat has been a fan favorite (Van Favorite?) amongst all the kids, and Juniper was the most recent to join the ranks.

And last but not least, this sweet nugget turned four months old.

Look at that chunky arm!  Isn't she so smoochy?  As a present to her for her four month birthday, God has started giving her back her hair.  Hallelujah!  Maybe by five months, we'll see some more even coverage, but for now, any little bit of fuzz is greatly appreciated.

She laughed for the first time this week while I was tickling her neck!  She loves laying on her belly and looking all around, and she loves spending all kinds of quality time with her siblings.  Her new favorite things are kicking her legs around like she's in Riverdance, and blowing spit bubbles.  The four-month sleep regression hit early and hard, and she's back to waking up twice in the night to eat.  Her naps aren't as predictably solid, either.  But she's moving herself to a 3-4 hour eating schedule, which is mind-blowing to me: most (if not all) of the other kids never made it much beyond a 2.5-3 hour schedule before I weaned them - even the ones who were weaned at a year or older!  She is seriously a miracle baby.  She is getting chunky, and she's so happy all the time.  You grow, girl!

'what's up' weekly.

Another day, another dollar.  (Nope. No more dollars, just more days.)  Another week, another what's up.

I had high, high hopes for starting school this week.  On Saturday morning, I braved Walmart during Back to School time, which looks more like the apocalypse is nigh than you'd expect.  People's carts were mounded with everything they'd need to survive in a Bunker of Education should the heavens start raining sulfur.  Clothing, shelf-stable food items, and the entire world's supply of tape are now out of stock from the looks of things.

Whatever.  Things might have felt borderline-panicked in the school supply aisles, but I still love back to school time.  I don't think I'll ever get over the smell of promise and optimism wafting from the crisp pages of an empty notebook.  Homeschooling has only heightened the feeling, since I get to pick our content, and I get to use all the pretty supplies.  However, homeschooling is also so streamlined for us at this point that I really don't get to revel in the supply lists anymore - I needed a few things, like a single zipper binder, and a megapack of Ticonderogas (I'm a pencil snob - who, by the way, has recently discovered Bic Velocity mechanical pencils and highly recommends them for personal use, if you're also a pencil snob), and oh yeah, seventy single-subject notebooks.  But by now, we have most of our supplies already covered.

Which brings me to a side note about homeschooling.  I spend a short time each summer buying all of our year's materials and supplies.  It's rough to see how much money we're spending on books and things all at once, and I sometimes feel defeated by the cost.  But honestly, when I think about how stinking long those supply lists are at Walmart, with all the things that are deemed necessary to attend public school, I'm actually quite confident that even considering the cost of curriculum in addition to supplies, we're spending less per kid to homeschool them than we'd be spending to send them to "free" public school.  Put yet one more check in the "win" column for homeschooling.

Anyway.  I found this adorable chalkboard while at Walmart, so we had a very impromptu photo session with each kid.

I need to retake this one so it is less blurry.  It says she wants to be a farmer, her besties are Laurelai and Atticus, her hobbies are writing and reading, her favorite food is mac and cheese, her favorite song is Before the Throne, her favorite movie is Madagascar, and her favorite color is blue.

Monday rolled around, and I was just not ready to begin whole-hog school, so we mainly just focused on the kids' new chore assignments.  I like to have the kids do the exact same few chores for an entire year before switching, rather than rotating jobs amongst them, for a couple of reasons.  First, I don't have to keep track of whose day it is to do what.  ("Monday Atticus unloads the dishwasher, Tuesday Penelope does it," etc.)  That's way more complicated than I'm able to handle right now.  Second of all, I like knowing that each kid is doing the job so many times that I can eventually expect proficiency.  By the end of 300-odd days of cleaning a bathroom, you'd hope that the child will be pretty decent at it.

So this week has been hectic teaching all the kids their new jobs.  Delegating stuff like this is always harder on the front end than just doing it myself!  I had to teach some kids how to use the steam mop, teach others how to clean the bathroom, teach others how to unload the dishwasher, direct others in taking more independent responsibility for certain personal hygiene tasks.  Even Rocco has been assigned jobs this year, which is so cute.  So between all of that and starting a new 'morning basket' routine, I have had plenty of work to fill my days, and I'm genuinely glad I dropped the expectation of also starting full-blown school at the same time.  Maybe next week.  Orrrr, maybe we'll wait until September...  Add "flexibility" to the "win column, as well.

We spent much of the week hunkered down at home, letting Juniper get caught up on sleep after our long weeks at swimming lessons.  I love being at home, and there's never a dull moment - Todd and the kids dedicated themselves to learning how to Floss, so that's been the biggest source of entertainment.  (Side note: there are six people in about 15 square feet of space in this photo.  This is typical for us, and I think you can see why our couch is full of holes.)

Callista has been in high form.  I'm not sure if it's just a case of Toddlers Gonna Toddle, or if it's because she's possibly in pain.  She got a little sunburn on her feet at swimming lessons - nothing bad, barely pink.  But all of a sudden, days and days later and without much warning, it started peeling and blistering, and it seems to be really bothering her.  She keeps asking to put a sock on it because it scares her to see it, but I don't want the sock to stick to it and pull away the skin, so I have to keep telling her no.  So I'm not sure if she's just freaked out by seeing it, or if it's also pretty painful and actually affecting her mood, but dang, she knows how to voice her thoughts.

Toddlers Gonna Toddle: 180-degree difference within mere seconds.  What a precious girl.

Luckily, Juniper is here to help her feel better.

And in "Melt Me Into a Puddle, Why Don't You" news, Atticus approached me yesterday and said he was wanting to buy groceries for a special dinner for the family.  He'd been poring over the Hy-Vee ads all week, which is actually normal behavior for him, so I didn't think anything of it at the time.  He'd been planning a menu, and calculating the cost of it, and wanting to spend his allowance to purchase all the ingredients.  So we conspired and used our Instacart membership to order everything from Aldi (even the sale prices at Hy-Vee are a bit staggering) and 45 minutes later, he and I were working on his surprise.

He chose pork steak, asparagus, salad, a baguette... and Doritos.  And powdered donuts for dessert.  He prepared and cooked the pork with as little help as necessary, he cut the bread and got everything plated, and he set the table.  He was so excited about it - he kept saying how he couldn't wait to be a dad so he could provide his family with all their meals.  It was so stinking sweet.


And beyond some ongoing organization projects, and beginning to think about our vacation coming up at the end of this month, that has been our week!  I can't adequately voice just how much I love our normal, run-of-the-mill, mundane life.  What amazing people I've been given to share it with.

what's up weekly.

The first summer we lived in Cedar Falls, when I was giant-pregnant with Laurelai, and the older three kids were all four and under, and we were living in a friend's basement, and we were in the middle of our first church plant move, and I cried every day about how hard everything was, I signed the kids up for swimming lessons.

One evening after the kids were all in bed and we were upstairs with our friends, drinking wine and eating chocolate (because we did things like that while we lived there because God was kind to us), my friend Jenni was like, "How are things?" And I was like, "We've been doing swimming lessons all week, and I'm so exhausted."  And she was like, "No, really, though; like, how are things?" And I was like, "SWIMMING LESSONS ARE MY ENTIRE REALITY RIGHT NOW.  I'VE GOT NO OTHER THINGS."

Even though lessons are only an hour in the morning, and even though they are only four days a week, they somehow suck two weeks of my life and leave me with no room for margin.  Nap schedules revolve around lessons; meals revolve around lessons; all energy is poured into getting everyone fed and properly attired and properly accoutered and into the van and across town and into the pool and out of the pool and into the van and into dry clothes and back across town and fed once again and down for naps and then I'm in a coma.

Swimming lessons have been my entire reality for the last two weeks, and while the kids had a blast and really progressed in their skills, I am glad to have our regular life back.  I am just too much of a homebody to have a standing appointment every stinking day.  Plus, Juniper has really struggled both weeks with the fact that she doesn't get a morning nap (she doesn't sleep in her carseat) and it has messed with her nighttime sleep.  We are ready to get back into a more relaxed routine of staying closer to home most days.

On Wednesday, we went up to Amish early in the morning in order to get back in time for lessons.  It's about a two-and-a-half hour trip in total, and I needed to stop at home afterward to get the milk in the fridge before heading to lessons.  We were running late, so I hightailed it into the house with the milk while the kids changed into swimwear, and we turned right around to drive 20 minutes across town to the pool.

We were already late, and Juniper was crying because she was tired and hungry, and one of the kids suddenly had some tummy troubles.  So I asked the kiddo to wait just long enough for me to feed Juniper, but it was becoming evident that wasn't do-able, so I hauled Kiddo and Crying Baby and Confused Callista to the family restroom, where Kiddo basically turned their guts inside out while I handwashed some nastified swimwear in the sink with antibacterial handsoap.

I think you can see why I'm reveling in the fact that we're just laying low around the house today.

The past couple of weeks have been our break stretch between school years, and I think we will start up with school again next Wednesday.  So I've been trying to take the afternoons to get a lot of projects done that I don't have as much time for during the school year - assembling and decorating our new bookshelves, hanging art, cleaning out the garage, grading papers, reorganizing our schedule and chore charts for the new year, cleaning out closets, etc.  I pulled out the Legos for the kids (they're usually hidden away, since Legos at our house inevitably lead to fighting if given enough time), so while I've been working the kids have been happily occupied.

This weekend, I'm hoping to get to Walmart to gather our last straggling school supplies.  Next week, we're going to slowly ease into the new school schedule, and I'm going to start getting organized for vacation.  Summer has just whizzed by, and it keeps on whizzing!