what's up weekly. (Rocco is seven, as well as some less important stuff.)

Well, hey there party people.  I bet you're shocked to find me around these parts two weeks in a row.  Someone needs to give me a medal.  Or better yet, cut me one of those giant checks.  I could use a giant check right about now.

Our first important item of note is that Little Brother is getting less little.  It could even be argued that he is not even a little bit little anymore, although I defy anyone to bring that argument to the floor.  I am still in denial.

For his birthday meals he requested Lucky Charms for breakfast, hot dogs and macaroni for lunch, and homemade pizza for dinner.  The kid knows how to carbo load.

He is sweetness itself.  He is unruffleable and good natured.  He literally never gets mad.  Ever.  He has a funny sense of humor and is definitely a seven-year-old boy.  (He made a super weird boy-face, asked Todd to take a picture of it, and then said, "Hmm.  That's the first time I've ever made that face as a seven-year-old.)  He has a weirdly extensive vocabulary, is so incredibly smart, and LOVES school.  After reading a chapter in Little House in the Big Woods, he said, "Well, that was quite the treat."  He still falls asleep during Story Club most nights, and he snores.  He has basically zero sense of personal space, and loves to be snuggled up to anyone who will let him.  He and Finneas appear to be attached at the hip, and are so good at being brothers.  They love playing GI Joes, riding bikes, running around in the field behind our house, having pretend shoot-outs, and wrestling.  Finneas is also a snuggler, so it's like they were MFEO.  

We love our soft, tough, brave, gentle, goofy, quiet, smart, good-natured brother so much, and are grateful for seven whole years with him so far.

To celebrate his birthday, we made a trip up to Iowa over the weekend so we could see family and wear eye patches.

Grilled cheese and Spaghetti-Arrrrrrrrs.

He asked for a donut cake and my mom delivered.

Later in the week it was Election Day.  We took all the kids with us to vote.  I'm glad they had the experience.

The rest of the week was spent doing school and working in small chunks on projects around the house, like continuing to work on the chicken run and cleaning up the back yard.  Our school schedule is still manageable; the rest of life feels a little hard to juggle right now though.  There is never enough time to work with.  But at least school is going well!  Maybe at some point I can cover what this school year is looking like for us.

We have switched to Teaching Textbooks for math and are liking it so far.

This book isn't for school; he's reading it in his free time.  Color me impressed.

And other than that, the weather has been off-and-on nice all week (up to the seventies, down to the thirties, you know how it is) so the kids have been taking advantage of whatever time they can outside.

See?  MFEO.

And that was our week!