what's up weekly. (all the reasons to celebrate!)

Welcome to the rundown of the past couple of weeks, which always seem full as we're living them, but when it comes time to document what we've been up to, I never really know what to write.  Let me go back and see what all we've been up to.

A couple weeks ago, Finneas spent the morning helping the neighbor assemble her new greenhouse.  Atticus was working, and Todd spent the morning at a meeting, so it was down to Finneas to step up to the plate to help out, and he did an amazing job.  I was really impressed with how helpful he was, how long he worked, and how cheerful he was about it.  Right around the time he was done around 2:00, not having had lunch yet, Todd got a text from someone at church asking for some help moving a piece of furniture, so they hopped in the van and headed over there to help.  When they got back, Finneas grabbed a quick bite to eat and then went back over to the neighbors to use the power tools to wash and vacuum the van.  He was a work horse, and he actually really enjoyed himself!

That same day, I got a call from some other neighbors who were holding an estate sale - they had saved a bunch of stuff back for me and wondered if I'd like to come pick it up.  I took some of the kids over to help me carry it, and while we were there, the folks kept giving the kids stuff for free.  I tried to buy some things myself, but they wouldn't take my money, so we are the proud owners of some new treasures, some new junk, and this awesome back door dinner bell.

The next week, we put our heads down and worked.  Many of the kids ended up finishing their schoolwork by the end of the week, so we started snowballing our way toward summer break.  First Rocco finished, then Juni, then Callista.  I tried really hard to get Lolo, Finneas and the big kids finished with read alouds, but things kept interrupting our routine - the babies were not in the mood to play quietly or leave my side, and the neighbors were getting their garden in and welcomed/needed the kids' help, so we spent many hours out there.

They planted so much - tons of radishes, beans, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, watermelon, okra.  They're going to have their work cut out for them this summer!

Last Saturday was full of fun adventures, so it was a nice way to mark the end of the school year (and give the kids with some remaining work a little breather)!  My parents came down to celebrate the kids with spring birthdays - Juni, Penelope and the babies.  They opened their presents, we had a fun lunch, and in the afternoon they all went to Home Depot to pick out flowers for their fairy gardens.  Once the fairy gardens were planted, my parents took Penelope out for dinner and a movie for her sixteenth birthday.  She had a great time.

Birthday girls

Oey didn't have a fairy garden last year because she was too little - she was so excited to get to plant one this time!

Sunday was Mother's Day, and my parents came to church with us before heading home.  After church, Todd picked up Thai food and we had a Porch Date.  I had asked for an outdoor umbrella for Mother's Day, so it was so nice to sit out there and enjoy it.  In the evening, the kids gave me presents and we watched Home for family movie night.

Porch Date with the kids.  I've been spending a lot of time out here with the babies now that the weather is nice.  They're in much better spirits when they're outside.  Aren't we all?

Opening gifts from the kids. 

On Monday and Tuesday we hit school hard, and now everyone is finished with read alouds!  Which means I am personally done with teaching for the school year!  Lolo, Penelope and Atticus are still working on wrapping up their independent work, but the rest of us are free as birds. 

Atticus worked all day, stopped at Casey's to get himself a soda, came home, and promptly let all his siblings drink it.  He is so selfless.

Finneas planted a climbing rose for me, and the babies "helped."

Walmart had the most adorable toddler-sized Adirondack chairs, and I just couldn't resist getting them for the babies so they have their own porch seating.

We celebrated our freedom yesterday by going out for donuts, then heading to Tractor Supply to pick out new chicks.  The chicks are all very cute now, but a couple of them are Turkens (chickens with turkey necks) so I'm feeling a little cringey as I anticipate them getting bigger.  But the babies and Oey especially are enthralled, and the chicks are doing well.

In the evening, we celebrated Ascension.

And that's the news of the week.  I've still been exercising and trying to watch what I eat.  I've been growing my nails out and using night cream and taking my vitamins consistently.  Look at me, I'm forty and I'm finally acting like an adult.  It's about time.  

what's up weekly. (work week and beyond!)

Sorry I didn't pop in here last week.  It was so busy around here!  We took the week off of school to get some work done around the yard - we usually have a break scheduled sometime in April, which is perfect for yard work, so I really try to maximize it when it comes.

A few of the projects we tackled:

First of all, we enjoyed the weather and rested up on the increasingly cute deck.  Work from rest, my friends.

We cleaned out the garden beds.

Atticus started shoring up the chicken run so we can hopefully get a few chickens this spring.

The younger boys emptied the compost bin and hauled the compost to the garden beds.

The babies played.  I mean, worked hard pushing their trucks around.

Lalie has enough hair for a ponytail! I die!

Atticus and Finneas trimmed up the trees.  They even got on the roof and tackled some overhanging branches that have been giving precarious.  Now that I know the boys can get up there easily enough, I'll have them get back up there soon to clean out the gutters.

We cut the branches up small enough to burn.

Does this job require three people? No it usually does not.  But Rocco wanted to the pull the trigger, and I wanted to make sure we didn't hit the concrete with the saw, so here we are, three people working together at the job.  As Todd said, "Just like it shows in the manual."

We went to the yard waste place and picked up a bunch of wood chips to mulch the chicken yard.

Remember when the whole chicken yard was rock and dirt?  And how I moved all the rock out and put some around the utility boxes on the other side of our yard?  Well, one of the boys' jobs last week was to remove it all again.  It ended up being super annoying to have to cross the rock bed to get around the yard, so I'm seeding it for grass instead.

We dethatched and weeded the front yard to prep for grass seed, then I put down top soil, grass seed, fertilizer and peat moss.  Every year I make an effort, and yet every year the yard keeps looking worse somehow.  Hopefully this is the year the work pays off.

Todd had a couple days off at the end of the week, so he hung my new exterior lights and house numbers.

Rocco seemed pretty excited.

Then we took a break for a popcorn party on the deck.  Remember?  Work from rest.

Then we were back at the chicken coop project.  This was kind of a major undertaking.  Atticus and I made like a thousand runs back and forth to Home Depot, but he got it done.  Now I just need to find the chicken coop paint to get the lid looking finished.

I mulched the front flower beds.

And Todd built us a fire pit in the back yard!  Almost every Sunday, he and the kids make a fire out there, and our metal fire pit was in complete shambles.  This one should last a good long time!  (Ignore the condition of the grass.  As bad as our front yard is, our backyard is a thousand times worse because the soil is filled with rocks and old netting, and it's super high traffic from the kids playing back there.  I'm not really sure how to fix it.)

In addition to all that, we've also had a few other adventures.  First, we've been working with Oey to get her potty trained overnight.  She has not figured out how to stay dry at night yet, so we really hit it hard this past week and have had some successes.

I haven't driven out of town myself in yeeeeeeears, and I've decided that I'm too old for that.  I need to relearn how to be comfortable driving.  So I've driven out to pick up our milk both weeks (obviously, with Todd in the car with me so that if I panic, I don't get stuck somewhere with no way to get home).

Our milk lady has the world's tiniest calf.  She was born weighing just 25 pounds!  I think she's like five weeks old in this picture and not much bigger than the baby goats.

Penelope's best friend turned eighteen recently, so we went to her birthday party.  There was folk dancing!  It was so fun.

 

And speaking of birthdays, Penelope turned sixteen!  She is so smart and funny.  She's insightful and creative.  She loves writing stories, drawing, reading, and writing music.  She is so good with kids.  She is excellent at school.  She is a good friend, and I'm glad she's mine.

Knox was really into pretending to take everyone's picture, and then he would turn the "camera" around so they could see how the photo turned out.

Todd's and my gift to her was an antique typewriter. 

It took some more finagling after this to get it to type clearly, but we put in new ribbon and Penelope has spent time figuring out all its functions and quirks, so it types much more clearly than this now.

We went to Sonic after dinner to celebrate her birthday with some friends.

We all sang Happy Birthday to her

She has decided that her first story typed up on this typewriter will be a detective mystery.  Seems fitting.

In other adventure news, Penelope was scheduled to take another CLEP test on Monday, but we got there, waited for the office staff to get back from lunch, and then found out that the proctor was out sick.  No one thought we might like to have received a phone call, and no one else was apparently qualified to sit and watch her take the test, so we had to reschedule.  It really wouldn't be a huge deal, except the test center is on the Army Post, you have to go and get a background check every single time you want to get on post, so it's like a whole thing.  I really don't need to be griping about it; I just thought I'd include you in the mild annoyance I felt.  You're welcome.  We'll go back again this Monday, and if she passes, we'll celebrate by getting cheese curds from Culver's, so please be praying she passes, if only for my sake.  (I've been working out more consistently lately, and trying to eat in a calorie deficit, so a lot of my thoughts have been aimed at those cheese curds.  I need them for my mental health.)

We've also spent a lot of time outside this week not working, in case you are starting to think that all our "free" time is really just spent doing more work and taking more tests.  

Blowing bubbles for them.

Putting a bandaid on Knox's knee.  She's so maternal.

And the last item of news is that the neighbors were holding an estate sale, so I went over and found a bunch of fun things: a pressure canner and some jars, a really beautiful wicker laundry basket, an oil lamp, a quilt.  I also got the world's most comfortable rocking chair, and a funny little handmade potato bin.

It says, "Spuds" on top, and "Betty" on bottom.  I have so many questions.  Normally you keep spuds in the top one, and onions in the bottom one.  But this one is for keeping potatoes and Betty?  Or is the top one for Spuds to keep his things in, and the bottom is for Betty to keep hers?  Or does the whole bin belong to Betty, but only the top is designated for spud storage?  But then what does she keep in the drawer underneath?

And those were many of our items of note.  The rest of this week was spent with our noses in the books, trying to finish up the school year.  I think we might be done with most of our work by the end of next week!  If we really push, I think we can get it done!  And then it will be SUMMMMMMAH!

And here are a few cheery photos to send you out with!

Knox was pushing her around!

From Lolo

From Callista