what's up weekly: I don't even know what day it is; here is some news from the semi-recent past.

Oh, good Lord.  How long has it been since I last posted?  I don't know.  What all has happened since then?  I don't know.  How long do I have to write this before getting too sleepy and just giving up?  I don't know.  Let's try our luck and find out.

It has been a while since I last posted; I think we had a week left of school before Thanksgiving break when I last wrote.  So some stuff probably happened that week, but I can't be sure.  I do know that Todd was gone on a work trip that entire week, so it was just me and the kids here, and Todd in Tennessee, and everyone bummed out about the whole arrangement. We're all really glad he's home.

I do know we got Stumpi moved back inside after she spent the summer outside on the deck.  Atticus built her a new little house and she loves it.  Ignore how nasty her water plate is - she does this every day.  She likes to swim in it and drag the dirt into the water.  Someone needs to enroll her in a health class.

The kids were excited to have her back inside.

Then we were on break.  I spent the first couple of days helping the kids deep clean their rooms, which was no small feat.  It had gotten bad down there.  They are typically responsible for making their beds each day, and vacuuming and dusting occasionally, but the accumulation of random crap and the closet situation was all pretty dire.  Organization is a learned skill, and it was time for another lesson in how to get eyes on everything you own and make a few decisions.  Another lesson in Trash Is Trash: Not Everything is a Treasure.  The kids were more or less eager learners, and I have to say they did a really good job purging.  The big girls got rid of FOUR kitchen trash bags worth of stuff. 

That week I also got the house cleaned in preparations for guests and we went to Home Depot and got our basement Christmas tree.

I also started brining the turkey midweek.  This is a sad story, so buckle up.  

I was gifted a beautiful, but huge, homegrown turkey by a friend.  Seriously, it was twenty-five or thirty pounds.  It was too big to fit in the roaster, and too big to fit in the oven.  I had Atticus spatchcock it for me to get it down to a more manageable size, and then I dry brined it.

Cutting out the backbone

See?  Huge.

The day of Thanksgiving was just a series of unfortunate events with the turkey.  It took longer than expected, in part because I must not have gotten the meat thermometer-ing right.  Long story short, the turkey turned out dry and sad and was served later than planned.  It all kind of put a damper on the whole day, to be honest.

Luckily there were other things going on to take my mind off my disappointment.  We had family here, and the kids had a blast playing with their cousins.  (Unfortunately, my sister and my nephew couldn't make it because he was sick, but the rest of her family and my parents all came.)

The kids helped to set the tables

They husked some Indian corn for decorations

My sister sent down some lunchtime charcuterie

We had a kids' table and an adults' table this year

I have had a hard time mentally bouncing back from Thanksgiving break.  We are out of groceries, I have stayed in my pajamas and forgotten to put on makeup all week.  I just don't have any "oomph."  I don't know if it's because break was a full week and I'm still recovering, or if it's because we're in that weird no-mans-land between Thanksgiving and Christmas where everything feels a bit floaty and surreal.  Maybe it's because we had a massive cold front blow in right after Thanksgiving and the change in pressure or temperature or something is messing with me.  I'm also wondering if my hormones are still a bit off since weaning the babies.  I'm not sure.  I'm just not really myself, and I don't have any fire in me.

This week we were back to school, and we started our second term.  It seems that when I planned the year, I must have kind of front-loaded the work, so this term seems like it's going to be a bit gentler than last.  I have felt overwhelmed by juggling school and babies during the morning stretch, but this week the big kids have watched them for about an hour in the middle of the morning so that I can concentrate on reading to some of the younger kids, and that has made a huge difference.

This week, we started Two Gentlemen of Verona during our big group read aloud time.  If you'll notice, I am actually dressed here!  Although Mt. St. Laundry hasn't been dealt with in a week...

We started the week with fresh snowfall, so it's been a week of snow gear and boots, which definitely added to the chaos, but also made everything so warm and cozy.  We kept the fire going, and the Christmas music playing, and the tree lighted all day.

Between the snow and the jammies, things were actually really cozy and sweet.

Speaking of the tree, we got our big living room tree on Saturday.  It was so easy this year.  We drove out to the tree farm in the drizzling rain, so when we got out there, things were muddy and wet but not busy.  (You have no idea to what lengths I will go to ensure places are not busy when I get there.  Half my mental energy is spent calculating how to avoid peak times of public human activity.  Traffic?  No.  Lines at Walmart?  No.  Standing behind maximum numbers of idiots at Aldi who park their carts in the dead center of the aisle so you can't get around them?  No.  YOLO, and I'm not going to spend my time squirming my way around strangers.  In a perfect world, only people I know would exist, and even they would only show up sometimes.)

ANYWAY.  I was telling you about Christmas tree shopping.  We got there, tromped through the mud, found the precut trees of the correct height, decided between the best two, and tromped back to the van.  It was a little interesting trying to get the tree in the van, since our cargo area is directly behind the front seats, rather than at the back.  It took some finagling, and Knox was thoroughly freaked out by the presence of the tree, but we made it in the end, and it only took an hour to get there and back. 

Yes, Penelope is in a t-shirt.  She marches to the beat of her own drum.

The boys got the big tree in the house and set up.  (The only thing better than having a teenage son is having two teenage sons.)

Finneas got the little tree prepped for the downstairs stand, and the boys got it all situated.

Then I strung the lights on the upstairs tree.  It looked really amazing... until the very first strand shorted out and I had to unstring the entire 9.5-foot tree just to get to figure out where the problem was and have Todd and Atticus change the fuses, and then I restrung the entire tree the next day before the kids put their ornaments on.  (For reference, this tree uses ten strings of lights.  Needless to say, I'm Christmased out already, so the downstairs tree has no lights or ornaments on it yet even though we bought it before Thanksgiving.)

Outfit 1: stringing the tree

Outfit 2: unstringing the tree

Outfit 3: restringing the tree

We decorated it on Sunday, and the kids have gradually put up room decorations.  

A photo of taking a photo.  Inception.

Like Mother, Like Rocco.

We finished up the last few ornaments in the daylight the next day.

New day, new pajamas.

The boys always do some kind of "battlefield Christmas" with all their G. I. Joes set out on their dresser.  I think they also put up a small tree.  The little girls strung colored lights and set up a small tree.  And the big girls made paper snowflakes and strung fairy lights and white streamers all around their room in addition to setting up their own little tree.  Everyone is feeling festive and decorative and seasonal.  I'm getting there.

The Joes, all thinking of their families at Christmastime.

I will say, I have most of my Christmas shopping done, which feels great.  Todd and I also took the kids to Dollar Tree last week to get their gifts for one another.  So most of the gifting has been accomplished and I should be able to just relax into Advent and enjoy it.  If I can only rouse myself a bit.

As for today.  Today is Atticus' birthday.  He's seventeen.  I just... can't.  I just don't even know how to think about that.  The time goes so slowly and so quickly.  I'm so proud of the young man he is.  He is a hard and cheerful worker.  He is always striving to jump in and meet the expectations of the next stage of life.  He is servant-hearted and is often found meeting needs around the house without being asked.  He's great with babies.  He's an amazing artist.  He is good at speaking encouragement into his younger siblings and is actively pursuing growth in the area of generosity toward them.  He's getting so close to the next chapter of his life, and I'm excited for him.

biweekly what's up. (Rocco's birthday, sick mom)

Hi everyone!  I'm going to try to be quick, because I seem to still be recovering from being sick and I need to go take a nap ASAP.

Last I left you, it was Halloween day and we were preparing for an evening of trick-or-treating, a Reformation Day cheeseboard, and a post-dinner viewing of the Luther movie.  It all went off without a hitch: the kids got dressed in their costumes, and we enjoyed our cheeseboard alongside some very colorful characters.  When we finished eating, we headed out to beg candy from our neighbors, which was really fun.  Our neighborhood is a perfect neighborhood for trick-or-treating: it's small, closed to thru traffic, and full of old people and families.  Minus a couple of houses that get too into the dark side of Halloween, it's really perfect.  When we got back, we put the babies to bed, the kids sorted their candy for a while, then they each picked a treat to eat while we watched Luther in celebration of Reformation Day.

Juni helped me set up the cheeseboard.

For the kickoff holiday to our feasting season, it is a fun and full night!

The next morning around 4:00 a.m., I woke up feeling wretched.  I spent all day in bed, sleeping, and spent that day and the following five days barfing up anything I ate or drank.  I have never had a stomach bug last that long.  I powered through the best I could, especially since we'd missed so much schoolwork the previous week when the kids were sick.  I couldn't really afford to fall further behind.  But that said, I do think I cancelled some class times, and maybe even a whole day once?  I honestly can't remember much.

I do know that that Tuesday was a full day - most importantly, it was Rocco's tenth birthday!

This kid is silly.  He's loyal and sweet natured and hates being the center of attention.  He and Finneas are joined at the hip.  He likes drawing and playing with G.I. Joes, and he's currently caught up in Ninjago Mania like the rest of the kids.  He's affectionate and great with the babies.  He's good at school.  He never fails to come find me to tell me goodnight before he gets tucked into bed by Todd.  I like him and I love him to pieces.

Rocco got some roller skates from my parents for his birthday, so the kids have all pulled out their skates and scooters and turned the garage into a roller rink.

Because it was birthday day, I made his requested meals (which were mercifully easy for me while I was in my death throes - cereal for breakfast, macaroni and hot dogs for lunch, root beer floats for dessert).  We were supposed to go out for Mexican food that evening after picking up milk and voting in our local elections, but we opted to wait a week since I wouldn't be able to go.

By Thursday, I was feeling better, just a little weak from not having eaten anything for so long.  I spent Thursday and Friday recovering, and on Saturday we headed up to Iowa to celebrate birthdays - my mom, my niece, and Rocco all have birthdays really close together (and Todd, too, but we didn't try to cram his celebration in while we were up there).  My sister, my mom and I went out to lunch to celebrate my mom, and then we came back to the house for cake and presents for the birthday kids.  We headed home that evening, but on the last stretch of the drive, my throat and my head started to really hurt.

By Sunday morning I had spiked another fever, and I was sick for the next couple of days with something Covid-y.  I had a cough, a headache, a fever, and my throat just killed to talk or swallow.  Luckily, I'd mixed up some fire cider in September, so I took a few shots of that each day with a little whiskey and honey, and I really think that helped my immune system kick into gear and get rid of all the crud in just a couple of days, but golly.  It has felt like a really long stretch of being really sick.

By Tuesday evening I was feeling better, so we went out to eat for Rocco's belated birthday dinner.  There's a Mexican restaurant he's chosen every year since we've lived here, and even though we only go in there once a year, the owner/manager(?) recognized us. He was making comments about how big the kids were getting, and trying to master all their names. We ordered our food, and they started bringing us extras like queso.  At the end of our meal, they brought the kids fried ice cream.  It was so kind.

I usually just order them a couple plates of appetizer nachos to share and it's always way more than they can eat.

But it didn't even stop there.  When they brought us our check, I took the receipt without looking at it and asked if we were to take it to the front to pay, or if we should just pay here at the table.  He was good natured and said, "No! No!" I thought he was joking so I played along with the "your money's no good here" bit, and handed the receipt to Todd to pay.  But when he handed it back to me to look at, it said we owed $0.  I thought it was a mistake, so I looked at the guy and he said he wanted to bless us.  He gestured that the Lord had encouraged him to wipe our bill.  It was so kind, and we were all stunned.

I have only ever had overwhelmingly positive experiences taking the kids to Mexican restaurants.  The staff is always so excited to see such a large family come in, which always feels kind of disorienting right at first.  One year, the waiters at this particular restaurant were literally pulling the decorations off the walls to give to the kids as gifts.  We've never had an experience quite as positive as the one this week, of course!  But I genuinely love taking the kids out to eat at Mexican places. 

That was such a highlight.

Since Tuesday, we've been kind of careening through the school week, trying to catch up on the last two or three weeks of work that got shuffled around or dropped when everyone was feeling sick.  I think we will actually be caught back up by the end of today, but I'm hesitant to speak too soon.

The babies thought we were all eating at the table, so they fussed to be put into their seats while we did school.  I gave them a few crackers and they stayed so calm during table time.  Such good little pupils!

In the afternoon, the high school kids and I talk about what they're reading in their independent reading assignments, and discuss current events.  We're also reading a book together on the Congressional debates on slavery during the 1830's and 1840's.  It makes for a ton of great conversation.  This is the culmination of all the early years of homeschooling when it was much more labor intensive; now I get to sit with my teenagers in the afternoons, drinking coffee, reading books, and talking about worldview issues.  Every day.  It is so much fun.

Lastly, I will just mention that Knox is officially weaned now, so that's the end of the breastfeeding journey with the twins.  It was mercifully so easy to wean him.  I had mentioned that Lalie had self-weaned a month or two ago - she just decided one day that she was over it.  But I wasn't quite ready to give up nursing Knox, and he was still content with it, so I kept going, even though I'm pretty sure he wasn't getting much milk.  (It didn't really matter, since I was only nursing him once a day, first thing in the morning before sitting him in his high chair with his "real" breakfast.)  But with the chaos of the last couple weeks, there were a couple of mornings where I just sat him at the table right away instead of nursing, and he didn't even notice we'd missed a beat.  So at the beginning of this week, I just officially pulled the plug and he's literally been none the wiser.

I was worried I would deal with mastitis or clogged ducts, or even just engorgement, but there has literally been nothing.  I must not have been producing almost anything at all.  So all in all, it has been the easiest weaning transition I can remember having with any of the kids- and it was weaning twins (so I was dealing with a double supply), both of whom were older than any of my other kids were when I weaned them.  So that has been such a kindness from the Lord, since it really could have gone much differently.

So the babies are officially toddlers.  That is wild and sad and happy and I should throw us a party for making it through the baby stage with twins, but I don't have time because I'm currently in the toddler stage with twins, who are literally everywhere at once, wreaking havoc and inflicting destruction everywhere they go.  So maybe we'll wait on the party planning until such time that twin life settles into a season of calm.  (HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.) (Ha.)

what's up weekly. (break week, reformation day, sick kids.)

Happy Halloween, everyone!  We've been busy the last couple of weeks, so I haven't had much time to pop in and update you.  Two weeks ago we were on school break, and I busted my behind to get a lot of work accomplished in a week.  I don't have time to get to bigger projects during our school weeks, and honestly barely get time and energy to even get to the basic tasks.  So as this break week approached, I was organizing my plans in my mind for using it to get as much done as I could.

So what did I get done?

I had Atticus help me hang a vintage mirror in the living room, as well as a second shelf in my hall closet to hold cleaning supplies.  

Atticus is basically an adult now.

Atticus and Finneas worked together to secure the chicken coop a little bit (even though we don't have chickens right now, we had a perfect piece of plywood for it, and I would like to someday have chickens again.)  

We took the van to the car wash and vacuumed it out, and the kids went to Dollar Tree to buy birthday presents for Todd.  

I swapped out the babies' clothes for their current size (they moved out of 3-6 mo and into 6-12 mo.)  We also dropped their morning nap, so it was nice that we had errands to run during the mornings to distract them from how tired they were.  (There's always a hard stage kids go through where two naps are too many, but one nap is not enough.)  Knox was sick the whole week, with terrible, terrible tummy issues.  I'm not sure if he ate something that didn't agree with him, or was exposed to some kind of allergen, or it was just purely because he's teething all his molars right now, but he was producing 8-10 poopy diapers a day for over a week.  His bottom was all raw from the constant exposure, and he was in a lot of pain.  He didn't sleep well at night or during the day.  It was a rough go.  I carried him in the Ergo with me for many of the jobs I tackled while he was awake because he just wanted to be held, sweet boy.

What else? We made and canned applesauce, and I chopped fifty pounds of onions for the freezer.  

We washed and cut and cooked down and milled and canned eighty pounds of apples.

The kids formed an assembly line to help me get them washed and chopped.

Juni kept me company while I chopped onions.

I cleaned out the food room and the storage room, which was a much larger job than just this one little sentence intimates.  

I brought the houseplants inside.  

I helped the kids get their Halloween costumes together.  

Penelope spent an afternoon putting together flower arrangements for our church's then-upcoming Reformation Day party.  

I cleaned off the deck and wiped the back of the house and under the eaves free of cobwebs.  I washed the big windows on the back of the house.

I cleaned out the garage, including mopping the floor, and I actually cut the onions out there on our old dining room table and I LOVED having the new prep space.  I think I'm going to leave it out there and use it for things like soaking beans, plugging in the roaster for rendering lard or making chicken broth, and other things that take up counter space or smell strongly.

Things have to get worse before they get better.  I had to pull all this stuff out before I could find a home for it all.

So anyway.  You see why I wasn't around to post much that week!  I fell into bed just exhausted most days, but I feel so much better about the state of things now.  And hear me out: I really think the housewife is the freest person on the planet.  How do I spend my days?  However I want.  I have goals and priorities that Todd and I obviously share, and I act out of those, but I get to be creative and sovereign over how to make it happen in my own home.  My personal interest projects don't have to take a backseat to some corporate agenda, or wait until my "after work" hours.  I don't live my family life out of the dregs of my day.  I don't work for some faceless customer base or consumer group; I don't spend my days investing in projects that literally have no bearing on my real life.  My work directly impacts the people I love most.  And the people who benefit or suffer from my work ethic or lack of it are right in front of me - I know that what I do matters.  It's a really powerful thing to be sovereign in my sphere, and to answer to the direct recipients of my vision and work.  I'm grateful to be living the freest life.

**

That Friday was Todd's birthday, and because we do pizza and ice cream on Fridays, he got his birthday dinner the night before.  What did he request?  Grilled cheese and Spaghettio's.  The kids have never raved over a meal more.  I made two full loaves of bread into sandwiches, and four cans of Spaghettio's weren't enough!  On Friday after pizza party, Todd opened his gifts from the kids.  What can we even say about our favorite person?  He is the best person walking the planet and when I open my eyes in the morning and look around, all the good things I see are because of him.

On Saturday we had the Reformation Day party.  The kids all got dressed up in their costumes for the costume contest.  There were homemade brats and soup for lunch, a pie contest, and bouncy castles for the kids.  It started at noon, and was cold and rainy all day, but most of the kids didn't come home until close to 6:00!  (I had left around 2:00 to bring the babies home for nap.)  Once they got home, I had everyone take turns in the shower to warm up because they were soaked to the skin.  Then, because dinner was on schedule to be so late, we just decided to have a popcorn party for dinner while we watched a movie.

L-R: Miss Mr. Peanut, A Bumblebee, Fern Arable, The Waters of the Deep, a Garden Gnome, Sacagawea, A Baby Mouse, Henry from 100 Cupboards, Haydee from the Count of Monte Cristo, and The Count of Monte Cristo Himself.

The judges of the costume contest were very serious and intimidating.

The next morning, Todd gave the exhortation at church, and we heard from C. R. Wiley as the guest preacher.  In the evening, we joined Wiley and his wife and a few other families from church for dinner.  I came home with the babies around 9:00, but everyone else came home after midnight!  I knew at that point that we'd probably be dealing with sick kids through the upcoming week as we jumped back into school.

Our first day back in the books went smoothly, all things considered.  Kids were tired, and not loving the transition back into the more structured routine, but other than a couple of meltdowns, they all did pretty well.  On Tuesday, Juni was sick.  Wednesday, Atticus was sick.  Thursday, Finneas was sick.  Last night, Penelope said she wasn't feeling well, so we'll see how that goes.  It hasn't been too bad, just a lot of tiredness and some congestion (though Atticus had a painful throat.  I gave him some fire cider I've had brewing, but apparently it's REALLY potent and the cayenne in it burned his throat, which was decidedly counterproductive.  I'll need to dilute it.)  All things considered, we got as much schoolwork done as we could, but we didn't finish as strong as I would have liked.  We will have some work to catch up on next week.

It was a very full house for Wednesday afternoon Read Alouds.

Just a couple of bros.

Rocco working hard on his math.

Penelope celebrated her half birthday.

A few days this week, I also posted a series of Day in the Life stories on my IG account.  I'll save them to a highlight if you're interested.  It was surprisingly time consuming and probably not something I'll do again for a while, but it was fun!

Hard at work as a Mom Influencer.

And that brings us to today!  I need to go grocery shopping, so I'll do that in the afternoon.  Then this evening, the kids will dress up in their costumes again, we'll have the first cheeseboard of the season to celebrate Reformation Day, we'll go trick-or-treating in the neighborhood, and then we'll come home to watch Luther and eat a bunch of candy in our costumes.  It should be a blast as long as everyone stays healthy.  And with that, hat's off (or on) to a great week.

I bought this tiny straw hat at Goodwill this week (oh yeah, I also made a trip to Goodwill this week), and Eulalie has worn it every minute she can.  I forgot to tell you that she self-weaned a couple of weeks ago - just decided she wasn't interest anymore - and Knox is now walking exclusively.  So I have no more crawlers, and only one nurser, and I think the baby days are coming to an end.  Welcome to the Twin Toddler Era.

what's up weekly.

Happy happy fall, y'all.  It's been half an October since I was last here, which means since we've last talked I'm sure all your neighbors have put up grotesque lawn decor.  Mine have, at least.  Can we take a moment to just shake our collective heads at the tackiness that is modern day October?

Don't get me wrong.  We celebrate Halloween.  I'm happy to belong to the historical stream of Christians who started Halloween and then kept up the tradition through the centuries, even as it's morphed and changed.  But, excuse my language, what the crap is happening lately?  Like, okay, I hate how dark and demonic people get with it, sure.  But before that, it is just flat out ugly.  Why on earth would someone want a two-story tall skeleton in their yard?  Or multiple $300 inflatables of cartoon ghosts?  We are also of the stream of Christianity that brought the world Bach and Notre Dame.  (Which fact is itself a testimony that haunting music and gargoyles don't have to be tacky and ugly.)  Let's not devolve.  If you're going to do Halloween, could it at least not be a freaking stain on the neighborhood for six weeks?  (Which brings me to my next grievance: why does this all start in September now?! It's longer than Advent at this point.)

Okay.  I can rein myself in and choose to pick up my soap box and walk away.  But you have to know that it's not because I have no more to say on the matter.  Whatever the topic is, I always have more I could say.  But you already knew that.  And this isn't even the first time I've ranted about Halloween anyway, so we can move on.

Oooookay.  I would first like to tell you that we seem to have finally gotten the van fixed for good!  (Knock on wood.)  The original problem was the starter, so we'd bought and Atticus installed a new starter.  Then we determined that the new starter was a dud, so Todd exchanged it for a replacement.  But then there was a slight mix up in the wiring when Atticus went to install that one, so it was still acting up.  Once we figured out where the problem was coming from, it started working fine and has been reliable ever since.  Thank the Lord.

These last two weeks of school have been "buckle down" weeks - intense, but so productive.  We are all caught up to where we need to be, and are ready to take next week off as a break week!  I have way too many things I'm hoping to accomplish with our time off (dropping the twins' morning nap, cleaning out the garage, painting the girls' room, canning a bunch of applesauce, helping the kids get their costumes together for Reformation Day, etc. etc. etc.) so I'm sure I won't get it all done, but I'm hoping to at least make a dent.

Oh gosh.  Trying to do school while the babies are awake is just... So. Much.  The exersaucers serve well as containment units, but they are not soundproof.

This week, we've had a lot to celebrate!  Juni celebrated her half birthday!

And most of the kids had baptism anniversaries to celebrate.  (Atticus's baptism anniversary is the 14th, Penelope's is the 15th, and the six following kids have theirs on the 16th.  Funnily, that's just how it ended up playing out in the different years.  Only the babies celebrate in a different month.)  We sing to them and give gifts.  Atticus got a cigar box, Penelope got a vintage alabaster trinket box.  What can I say, it must be the Year of the Box.  The younger kids haven't received their gifts yet because one gift has yet to arrive in the mail, so we're waiting on that.

This week felt busy, as we had a lot of evening commitments.  Monday and Tuesday, Todd had elder meetings, and on Monday while he was gone, the kids and I met up with the other elders' wives and kids for a prayer/playdate at the Sonic playground.  It made for a very unusual week - I am almost never out and about in the evenings, so it felt extra strange!

Well, now I'm off.  Today holds read alouds, high school science lab, middle school science lab, art class, taking Atticus to his mowing jobs, and a grocery pickup.  And then we're on break!  The oldest kids will kick off break week with Third Friday Movie Night, where they stay up past bedtime to watch a movie with Todd - usually something the younger kids aren't ready to watch yet.  I think this month it's Lone Survivor.  So that's how we're kicking off the weekend - have a good one!

what's up from the longest week ever.

Hi friends!  This week lasted forever.

I don't know why.  It just felt like the week that would never end.

Last Saturday, the girls participated in our church's Makers Market, where folks from church got together to sell what they produced (and purchase things from each other).  It was really neat - we have farmers in our congregation who were selling grassfed meat, homemade cider, fall decor, home canned jams, fudge, popcorn, etc.  Others folks were selling coffee and cinnamon rolls.  One gal had beeswax candles, some teenage girls from church sold children's books with hand-crocheted stuffed animals to match the books.  One guy has a 3D printer and was selling the neatest toys.  One gal sews and made all kinds of cute little girl hair items.  Another lady has does high-end cookie decorating.  One guy was selling handmade toy wooden trucks.  One gal was selling the most beautiful bouquets.  And our girls teamed up with some friends and sold baked goods and chai lattes.  They had a wonderful time!

It was kind of an eventful morning.  I took Penelope over around 9:15 to set up the table, and then came home to help the littler girls get ready to go.  When we got back there around 10:00, the police were there and things were in kind of a stir.  It turns out that while I was gone, a driver on the street in front of the church fell asleep at the wheel (or was maybe on drugs?  At that point things were still in confusion) ran into the truck parked on the street where our van had been parked just a little while before.  He remained asleep after he hit the truck.  One of our elders called the police, but when one of the neighbors saw the cops coming, she ran out to wake the guy up and he sped off across the lawn of the church where all our church families were gathered.  He almost hit a five-year-old.  By the time I got there, some police were chasing him, but I still don't know if they were able to catch him.  Wild.  I'm glad everyone was okay, and I'm glad our van hadn't been parked there at the time and gotten hit.

Although, maybe it really made no difference to our van in the end, because when I went to drive us all home, it wouldn't start again.  I'm glad we were with our church folks at the time - one family lent us their minivan to drive home and to borrow to get everyone to church the next day; another couple of families came up with tow chains and got our van pulled back to the house for us.  

Our neighbor Valente came over to help us run diagnostics.

We think we may have unwittingly gotten a bad replacement starter when we had to fix the van a few weeks ago, so Todd and Atticus are going to take the new one back to O'Reilly's to exchange it, and hopefully third starter's the charm.

Saturday morning while I was gone with the girls, Todd and the boys brought my new dining room table in!  Oh, I just love it.

BEFORE:

AFTER: 

It has a few more leaves, too.

Saturday night, Todd took me to see Gin Blossoms!  It was so random - our city festival was happening, and usually we could care less about it, but I just happened to be browsing the flyer they sent out a few weeks back and saw that Gin Blossoms would be playing - FOR FREE - TEN MINUTES FROM MY HOUSE.  If you are new here, I love 90's alternative rock, and I love Gin Blossoms.  It was so fun, except for the lead singer guy (who, startlingly, is no longer twenty-five years old?  How long ago was 1992?) kept trying to make us clap along to every single song.  It was giving Wiggles.  But that's the new millennium for you: everything is a sad shell of its former glory.  We thought we'd be driving flying cars and wearing metallic pants by now, but we're just being told to clap along to songs from the last time music was actually good.  A teenager next to me with a high-top fade asked me who this band even was, and all I could answer was, "You're too young."  Everything old is new again, and everything really old knows who Gin Blossoms are.  

Anyway.   The music was still great, and they closed with a great cover of Folsom Prison Blues, which was funny because they kept competing for volume with the trains that kept passing on the tracks right next to the stage.  It was a fun evening!

This week's school work has been a fight, but I think we're finally getting on our feet this school year.  Callista finished out last week a full week behind, but she's almost completely caught up at this point.  I finished this week's assigned read alouds with most of the kids already, freeing up my morning today so I can go grocery shopping.  

I got one of those little lullaby-and-lights players for the babies, to hopefully give them something to keep their attention for short bits so I can get some school done sans toddlers.  Alas.  They enjoy it, but there is no magic bullet for homeschooling with little people underfoot, as I should have already known.  

I haven't gone grocery shopping in five weeks!  I cleaned out the fridge before we left on our trip, and we've been home for two weeks now without replenishing, and the pantry is looking like we're living in wartime.  I just haven't had time to go - it is such a major ordeal around here.  I try to be really organized about it, which means a time investment on the front end.  I look through what we have and take an inventory of what we are running low on.  Then I make out a menu plan for the month, taking into account special events or appointments or anything else that I need to keep on my radar and plan groceries around.  Then I make a grocery list based on the menu plan, and then I put in a Walmart order and put the remaining items on my Aldi list.  So all of that takes a good couple of hours before I even head to the store. 

Then there's shopping, and then there's putting away, and then there's the time it takes to declare my will to give up the ghost, sign over power of attorney, and collapse into catatonia.  It's all very time and energy intensive, as you can imagine.

So anyway.  I think I've carved out some time this morning to actually head out, as long as I can finalize my lists and get those in order first.  We'll see.  Then once I get home and get groceries put away, I'll still have some read alouds. and science lab to do this afternoon, and then I really will kick the bucket.  It's been nice knowing you.

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