Unsolicited Styling

 

Meal Planning

"Let's have candy for dinner." -Topher, upon seeing some candy in our basement pantry.

Super Early Bird

I learned today that Sophie has been waking up at the same time as Peter and heading down to the basement to join him for seminary. That's up before 6am. She has an early bedtime, but that's still a little too early. We knew she was overtired, now we know why.

Focus

The switch to cyber school has been hardest on Cooper. While the other three are generally done for the day no later than 2pm (and often much earlier), Cooper has been putting in ten to twelve hour days. He's had a very hard time staying on task, then he was switched into an accelerated math class and had to catch up on nearly two weeks of work. That pushed him behind in all of his classes. It's been a long few weeks of work for all of us.

He finally caught up last Saturday evening and rested on Sunday. Then, when this new week started, he kept putting in those late hours.  I figured he was in the same position as before, getting off track and taking his time. We had today off from school, so we only had four days to get through. 

On Wednesday evening Cooper came upstairs from the basement and reported that he was done. I asked if he was done for the day. He said yes, but he was also done for the whole week. He did four days of work in three.

I hugged him and praised his hard work. Then I asked what the difference was this week. Was he so used to the long hours from the first few weeks that he was now conditioned to accomplish more? He said that might have helped, but he figured not watching so many YouTube videos made a big difference too.

Yup, that would definitely help.

 

Teacher's Aide

Some of our school days run relatively smoothly. Others do not. We were having one of those other days last week with Sophie. A friend whose son attends our cyber school had shared that at the end of some weeks she runs out of patience and energy before they run out of school. That's when she has her two older boys step in and act as educational facilitator for their younger brother. This story popped into my brain and I asked Phoebe if she wanted to have a go at helping Sophie with one of her classes.

Phoebe immediately declared that she would teach Sophie all of her schoolwork for the day. I pulled her back and said she could do two of the four. I snapped this picture of how delighted Sophie was to have Phoebe doing school with her. Then, since Topher was upstairs napping, I laid my tired head down on the couch next to them and took a tiny nap.

This teacher's assistant arrangement only lasted two days, I guess the magic wore off quickly. But it was very nice for a moment.

Wunderkind

This morning, as Sophie was running out of steam to finish her schoolwork, I told her it was only ten minutes until lunch, and I thought she could finish her last task by then. I didn't realize that Topher had heard me until I turned around and saw him setting clementines on the table, ready to eat. 

He's moving out of using a highchair, which means meals require pretty tight supervision, and I wasn't quite ready to provide that. So I reminded him that we needed to pick up the blocks first, then we could eat. I turned my attention back to Sophie and the instructions in her Social Studies book. A minute later I looked up, surprised to see Topher finish putting the blocks in their boxes.

I praised the good work he had done as I slid the boxes into their cubbies, then walked into the kitchen. That's when I saw my two-year-old place three plates on the table, a tiny orange on each one, and heard him say, "For Topher, for Sophie, for Mommy," as he laid each place setting out.

I've said it before, but I'm pretty sure he's a genius.

Gone Grill

Peter started the day looking like this:

He ended the day looking like this:

And he spent some time enjoying things he hasn't been able to eat during the past twenty-two months.

Fashion Freedom

One unexpected perk of doing cyber school? Today Sophie attended her lessons wearing Phoebe's church shoes, Phoebe's fancy church coat (over pajamas, of course), and carrying a handbag. She was in desperate need of an old fashioned hat to complete the ensemble, but she made do with my big floppy summer hat instead. I don't think this would have worked for in-person school.

Baby Sea Dee

Actual Conversation I Just Had With Peter

Peter: I have a question Mom.

Me: The answer is go to bed.

It's 10:10 at night, for the record, and his bedtime is 9:30. And Peter will follow us around talking to us until he finally falls asleep. And my brain is tired.

The answer is often go to bed.

Twisty

Phoebe learned a new skill last night. Bryan thinks it'll pair nicely with her budding ventriloquist act. Now she just needs to learn to juggle and she can go on the road.

Getting Some Vitamin D

 

Fit As a Fiddle

I spent time last week proofreading all the 2019 blog posts in anticipation of printing those two ( I split most years into two books) blog books. Last year included Topher's hospitalization, which was so hard to read through. In fact, as I read, I was surprised just how many posts were about our family, or members of our family, being sick. We were sick so often!

That made me reflect on the last six months that we've primarily been at home. We've gone stir-crazy several times, gotten extremely stressed out, been desperate for adventures, been overwhelmed by so many hard things happening in the world around us, and reached levels of exhaustion heretofore unknown.

But you know what we really haven't been?

Sick.

We've had some sniffles and runny noses from running the fans and living in a wind tunnel during the entire month of June. And we've had some upset stomachs from eating too much junk food. I even discovered that I have seasonal allergies of some variety, I start sneezing when we have the windows open. But we have not been the kind of sick that comes from being around other people. No colds or stomach bugs, no pink eye or strep throat. No one on antibiotics.

I miss people (at least, I think I miss people, it's been so long I'm not sure I remember), but not getting sick in the last six months has been a blessing. Then again, I guess not getting sick is kind of the goal of this whole staying home business.

Snack Time at School

 A major perk of doing cyber school is how much extra time Topher is getting with his siblings. He's a big fan of having them around.

Art Time

The girls were both done with their schoolwork by 10 o'clock this morning, so I figured we had time for an art lesson. Our favorite art teacher (Grandma Bonnie) is all the way in California, so we opted for a YouTube video from Art for Kids Hub. The girls both did a good job.

Here's Phoebe's:

And here's Sophie's:

Bubbles

 It rained bubbles at our house yesterday!

Early Morning

Today was Peter's first ever day of early morning Seminary. That means he had to be awake and ready to participate in a scripture study class at 6 o'clock this morning. We added the requirement that he also be showered and dressed before beginning.

Bryan and I both went to early morning Seminary, not to be confused with the time-release variety offered in Utah. That sounds like some kind of medicine, but it really means that there are so many members of our church in Utah that the high schools offer time in the regular school day for kids to take a religion class in a church-like building slightly off-campus. But I didn't grow up in Utah, so I had my daily gospel study class in our church building before school started.

I remember setting my alarm for 4:30 in the morning so I could totally get ready for school and be there on-time my freshman year of high school. I also remember that by the time I was a senior I would roll myself out of bed just in time to deliver my brothers to their classes at 5:45, then slip into the bathroom to put on my makeup since our teacher decided we shouldn't start until 6:00.

Peter's class (for the time being) is meeting virtually over Zoom, so his commute is pretty short. Bryan and I set our alarms for 5:30 this morning, woke up enough to hear Peter get in the shower, reset the alarm for 5:55, checked the basement camera and saw that he was at his computer ready to go, then slept for another hour. We probably should have gotten up and made him breakfast or taken his picture or done something special to mark the day. But we didn't, because we're tired.

All he would tell me was that it was clear several of the kids were still in their pajamas and in bed. And he said he was tired too. That's the full report I got on Seminary, so who knows what actually happened. But at least Peter was there.

One of the Boys

One of these boys decided he's big enough to sit at the table instead of his high chair. Hint: it's not Peter or Cooper.

Magical Visitors

 We finished our first full week of cyber school with a visit from a queen,

a warrior princess,

and a dragon.

My Special Thing

For Sophie's first writing assignment of the year I (and all the other first grade parents) had strict instructions not to help with spelling or grammar or punctuation. This led to strong negative feelings from Sophie, including several threats that she was running away because she didn't know how to spell "thing."

It was an exciting day.

She finally got through the work, a few lines where she was asked to write about and draw a picture of her favorite thing. I thought she was going to write about her treasured stuffed red panda Delly. But she surprised me by writing about someone else.

"My speshl thing is my baby bruthr bekus he maks me happe."

Translation: My special thing is my baby brother because he makes me happy.

Stationary

Yesterday was a big day, and I didn't even think of it until bedtime. It was four years ago yesterday that we got the keys to this house. Four years is the longest we've ever stayed in one house or even one ward. The longest stretch before this was three and a half years in the same ward in Pleasant Grove, UT, but we lived in two different condos while there. Before that it was three years in our Wymount married student housing apartment/ward, all before we had kids. 

Four years feels a little like forever.

First Day, Again

 I took so many pictures yesterday and this is literally the only one with all of their eyes open.