what's up weekly. (mother's day, chickens and THE LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!)

Let's skip the small talk, SCHOOL'S OUT!!  Today is our last day, so I don't have cute last-day-of-school photos to post yet, but you better believe they're coming.  This is something worth celebrating!

Do Alphabits count toward school hours?

I will say, this school year has been gentle.  All of my school kids are in a pretty independent place, so my involvement was somewhat minimal, and our days operated smoothly.  So it was hard work, for sure, but it wasn't hard fought.  I'm proud of what the kids accomplished this year and the progress we made.  We definitely have things that I'd like to focus more on, but each year of homeschool under my belt helps me realize more and more that there is time for tweaking.  We can always try again to meet our ideals next year.

So.  In honor of their hard work (and acknowledgement of the sudden sweltering heat), we're going to get frozen custard for lunch today from a local place.  (In between going to get Juni's glasses ordered, going to Atticus' speech therapy appointment, and packing packing packing and driving driving driving boxes across town to the storage unit.  Even without school on the agenda, we still have plenty to fill our time.)

Okay, let me really quick tell you about the speech therapy Atticus started recently.  I got the therapist's name from our orthotropic dentist, not in reference to his speech but rather his oral function.  But I finally called her because I was desperate about his speech and the last standard-practice place we tried left me so frustrated that I knew it was time to try a different approach.  She's focusing more on training and strengthening his tongue than on getting him to try to create certain sounds, but by jove if it isn't already helping his speech.  We've only been three times and I can already hear a difference.

And in regards to Juni's glasses: her eye has been turning in lately, just like all my other glasses kids' did, so I knew it was time to get her an appointment.  The doctor found her vision is pretty bad in that eye (shocker, I know), so she's jumping into the exciting world of spectacle sports.  

In between all of our appointments, I've been trying to clear out the house.  I'm not going to lie, it's overwhelming at times.  Also, I cleared out the girls' room today, and removed their bookshelf and the toy kitchen, along with some books, toys, and their cubbies... and it's shocking how much bigger their room feels.  And we're honestly not a 'toy' family, so I didn't expect for there to be this large of a difference. 

In continuation of last week's goal of time stamping our house, this is how the girls' room has looked as we've lived in it, before I cleaned it out yesterday and rearranged.  The three big girls share this room - Callista has a trundle mattress that we pull out at night.

In the afternoons, I've been driving a trunk load or two of boxes up to the storage unit, which is annoying but necessary.  The closest place in town with open units is over twenty minutes away, so every trip takes like an hour.  I take Atticus with me for extra help, though, so it's nice to get some one-on-one time with him.

This is our room.  I really wanted to get the curtains finally hung before the home birth (I don't know why, but every baby has 'its project' that I get weird about before birth) but it didn't end up happening.  Six years in this house and still no curtains!

This is where Todd works from home.  Have I mentioned we're kind of busting at the seams?

In chicken news, the chickens are doing well.  They've been moved out of the garage into the yard, so our garage doesn't stink so bad, thank heavens.  They spend the day in their little makeshift pen (kiddie pool and chicken wire and sheets, because we are definitely the 'white trash backyard' people on our block) and sleep in the coop at night.  Last night one of them got through the chain link fence into our neighbors' yard, and we're very glad their dog wasn't out.  I still haven't decided if I'm going to get a pen for them or just let them free range, but clearly the kiddie pool pen is at least necessary until they can't get through the fence.  There are dogs in three of the four yards that abut ours - a midsize mutt thing, a shih tzu, and a husky.  The husky is actually the lowest threat.  The shih tzu has already killed another neighbors' chicken.  (Considering that it is a shih tzu we're talking about, the chicken probably died of sheer annoyance and not physical injury.)

DeeVee is unable to hide his true identity anymore - he is definitely a rooster.  And also he's so pretty and also he's my favorite.  I feel sad we're not going to keep him, but c'est la vie.

Penelope has really, really enjoyed life with the chickens.  She has kind of taken on the role of Mother Hen, if you will: making sure they have fresh food and water throughout the day, moving them from coop to pen to coop, giving them treats, playing with them, keeping them shaded as the sun moves through the day, climbing the fence to get Little Princess out of the neighbor's yard.  She has been so fantastic - and, as she's an indoorsy gal, it's been nice for her to have something to motivate her to spend good amounts of time outside each day.

And the last news of the week: it was Mother's Day last weekend!  The kids were sweet and got me all the seasons of a show I like (it was Penelope's idea, for those of you wondering), and Todd got me a book and arranged with friends to watch the kids so we could go out for a date night later in the week.  We went to a local Cajun place, and it was good enough to make me think we shouldn't move away.  It was good enough to make me want to serenade my oysters with, "How do I live without you?"  It was good. 

But THESE kids (plus Ophelia) are who I truly can't live without.  Spicy cream sauce pasta is deceptive and oysters are fleeting, but a family who looks this cute is to be praised.  Seriously, not an uggo among 'em.

And that was our week.  I would love to just fall down dead, because I'm tired and sore and I don't want to have to keep packing, but your life doesn't stop just because you're dead, so I guess I'm going to have to man up and keep at it.  I'm hoping to make some good progress on cleaning, repairs and clearing things out so that it's pretty much done by the end of next week.  I have tentative plans to ask for a little help for a couple hours on the morning of Saturday, May 21 - just laying mulch, some basic cleaning, that kind of stuff - so if you're local and free from 10ish to 12ish, please let me know!

Rocco just looks like a wallet-sized print of Finneas.

Happy Friday, and HAPPY SUMMER!