I didn't post last week because I typically write my Friday posts on Thursday night, and last Thursday was Thanksgiving. It was a full day and I just wanted to let Thanksgiving be Thanksgiving, you know? But that means I have two weeks, including a holiday, to fill you in on!
We took the entire week off of school. It has finally started getting cold, so I wanted to use the first couple days to get everyone's cold weather clothing pulled out and washed, and all their warm weather clothing washed and packed away - a project I had tried starting the week before, but suffered a setback when the dryer was out of order. So the laundry situation around here was insane for a while. I'm still only nearly caught up - I ordered the last items of clothing that we need, and they should arrive next week and then we'll be all set... for a couple of months anyway, until the weather changes or the kids grow out of their current sizes, whichever comes first. I still need to get out their cold weather shoes - their available options at the moment are sandals or snowboots. Maybe I'll get to that this weekend... Always something.
We also were still fighting Crud over Thanksgiving week. We have had the weirdest bug going through our house - Rocco was the first one to get it around his birthday, and it has been slowwwwwly working its way through everyone. Some days everyone seems fine, some days they're spiking fevers, some days they sleep all day, some days their cough is really chesty. And through a single day they might cycle through all of those states to varying degrees. I've come to suspect it's walking pneumonia, but by Thanksgiving week I still wasn't sure what was going on. Rocco was finally on the mend after falling pretty hard, but Atticus had a cough, and Finneas and Penelope had kind of waxing and waning fevers for a couple days. By Thanksgiving, the kids were under the weather, but not so much so that I was convinced anyone was super sick.
But now I'm confident we're sick. And if Rocco was the prototype, we each have 2-3 weeks of it to look forward to. The three biggest kids are about on week 3, I'm headed into my second week, and the three little girls just started their coughs and headaches a couple of days ago, so we may be in for another few weeks yet. Todd and the babies haven't shown signs of anything yet - KNOCK ON WOOD. I just desperately don't want the babies to get it.
But anyway. Back to break week.
In addition to clothing swap and Thanksgiving prep, the kids and I went to pick out our little basement Christmas tree at Home Depot. We discovered last year that the quality and selection is so much better the few days before Thanksgiving, rather than waiting until after to get one. So I took all the kids out for a quick adventure.
Knoxaboxen
Laliebeans
We need two carts just for carting people at this point, and we still don't have much leftover room for actual merchandise in there.
On the way home, we stopped at a friend's house so Finneas could get instructions for his first paid non-family job: cleaning out litterboxes while our friends were on vacation.
Then came the actual day of Thanksgiving! My parents came down (my sister's family couldn't make it because they, too, were under the weather) and we all had a great day together.
On Saturday after Thanksgiving, we headed out to the nearby tree farm to pick out our big living room tree.
It was pretty cold (it was the first snow of the year!) so Todd stayed in the car with the babies while the rest of us picked out the tree.
As a side note, I am taking advice from a friend and watering our trees with hot water this year - she said it keeps the sap from hardening over the cut end and preventing water uptake. So far, so good - both trees are drinking an entire tree stand worth of water every day and not slowing down. So we'll see if it's worth it over the season - heating up kettles of water takes time and forethought so if it's not worth it, I won't bother with it next year, but it really does seem to be working.
Unwrapping the tree, which I should have done before putting the tree in the stand but didn't. The kids named this one Branch, because it's a tree and also because that's the name of a character in the Trolls movie, and they think the tree looks like it has Troll hair standing up on top. I vote for the name Pine-Apple.
Lolo got this picture of us getting the lights on the tree. Rocco is dressed like a little helper elf!
And that brings us to this week. I stayed home from church with Penelope on Sunday, since she was running a fever again, and the start to the week has been rocky. I started coming down with the Crud on Saturday, and it is definitely not a joke, so I understand why the kids are really struggling extra with the jump back in to school and "normal" life. (We don't often take sick days unless it can't be avoided; more often, we just rearrange the week's workload to give us a few lighter days while they recover. But that's not exactly possible with an illness that is lasting this long, so we're just doing our best to keep going even when it's hard.)
Yesterday was Atticus' 16th birthday!
I couldn't even begin to list all the things I love and appreciate about him. He is responsible, kind, good natured, easy going. He is artistic and funny. He loves history and politics and playing with babies. He is a hard worker and is respected by the people around him. He's interesting to talk to. He's seriously just the best.
He was pretty lowkey in his requests for birthday meals: pancakes for breakfast, lasagna for lunch, Domino's for dinner. Unfortunately, I hadn't been grocery shopping in nearly five weeks, so I needed to run to the store before breakfast for a grocery pickup. Also unfortunately, I slept terribly and woke up with a splitting headache, so Todd kindly picked up the groceries. Once the ibuprofen kicked in, I had my feet under me, but I still need to do my big shopping trip. Maybe I'll go today, or maybe Todd will, depending on how I feel. (He has the day off and has offered to go.)
Today holds other fun as well: first, it's St. Nicholas Day, so I'll fill you in on that next week. The shoes are filled and waiting for the kids, and we'll have cheeseboard for dinner and watch Miracle on 34th St. We will be decorating the tree this morning as well. The big kids are also going to be starting their first official Biology dissection work today. So... I am very glad Todd has the day off so I can disappear while it happens. I thought I'd be okay with it, but once I opened the delivery from the homeschool science company, and thought of cutting up a rubberized fish on my dining room table, I lost my chutzpah. So we'll see. There are seven different specimens - maybe I'll get up the nerve eventually. But for today, they'll be doing Biology lab with the headmaster.
2 comments :
knoxaboxen and laliebeans have got to be my new, favorite nicknames for the buster brown and lalie girl. (aka butters and beans)
Do you guys use your fireplace? I've always wanted one. 🥰
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