what's up weekly.

And just like that, we already have two weeks of school in the books.  Wild.  In some ways, it has been more challenging than the first week - on Monday, Laurelai was feeling sick, so we adjusted her schedule to accommodate lots of naps and rest.  

On Tuesday, the twins started a days-long run-in with a weird tummy bug, so I started the rest of the mornings this week with changing barfy sheets and running baths and sitting with sick babies.  I cancelled school altogether on Tuesday, thinking it would be a 24-hour thing and we'd jump back in the next day.  But on Wednesday and yesterday, we just attempted to do what we could, when we could. 

The sickness seems limited exclusively to the morning, which is strange, so they're fine once naptime comes around and into the evening, but then they wake up the next day covered in puke again and spend the morning with unpredictable bellies, so as of now I'm not sure what to expect today.  They were fine last night, but that information hasn't helped much in predicting our morning experience, so we'll see how today goes.

Finneas celebrated his half birthday.

Knox boasts the headgear and laundry-sorting knowhow of a much older man.

Our wildlife livestream (aka, our dining room window) has been abuzz lately with all kinds of new content.  A couple of hummingbirds visit our feeder each day (though not at the same time - one always chases the other off, like a tiny little chump), and we often have a praying mantis hanging out at the feeder as well, eating all the ants that drown in the hummingbird nectar.  And an orb weaver spider has adopted our back doorway as his new home - each night he weaves a new web, and each morning he folds it all up and puts it away.  It's fun to watch him working.  The kids have named him Miguel.

Keeping the babies contained and accessible while they're sick.

We also had a big thunderstorm and a power outage Sunday night, so we whatfired up all the emergency lanterns and candles.  Luckily the storm brought some slightly lower temperatures than we've been having, or it would have been sweltering without the air conditioning.  But everyone went to bed fine, and the power came back on around 1:00 a.m., and we didn't lose anything from the fridges or freezers, so all's well that ends well.  It was kind of an adventure to get to live by lantern light for a few hours!

And the last item of note is that we travelled to Iowa last Saturday for a family reunion on my dad's side. (At least, most of us did.  Atticus and Penelope stayed home with the babies.)  It was fun seeing so many people I don't get to see very often, and the icing on the cake was that my aunt brought me some genealogy/family tree information that I was wanting to look through.  She passed it on to me, along with an old photo album, and I've been having a wonderful time reading through it all and trying to connect the faces in the photo album with the information I'm discovering in the reading.  I am loving learning my family history.

And that pretty much sums up the week!  Today, I'm hoping to get fully caught up on the schoolwork we haven't gotten to yet from earlier this week, and hopefully pop out to pick up a gift for a party we are going to tomorrow.  I'm hoping it's a calm, sickness-free day.  Wish me luck!