The One With St. Paddy's Day

Friday was Saint Patrick's Day! Everyone in the family wore at least a little green when we got up to celebrate the day, Peanut didn't have any shirts with green on them so she wore socks with green on them. No one wanted to get pinched for not wearing green! We went down to Grandma and Papa's house to help out a little bit and visit. Grandma is doing so much better! YCJ ran the vacuum for Grandma, ECJ took out the garbage, Peanut visited and made her smile, Daddy ran several errands, and I filled the Jet Dry compartment on the dishwasher and did the dishes while we were there. We were there for several hours and I'd brought them down some corned beef and cabbage so that they could eat it over the weekend (they do not eat meat on any Friday but certainly not during Lent). When we came home I transferred our corned beef and veggies from the crock pot to the stove top pot and added the cabbage. Everyone enjoyed the special meal that we only eat once a year. I also finished the baby sampler that I was cross stitching to give to my sister and I LOVE how it turned out!

On Saturday we decided to just hang out and relax. Of course all the pets were cared for including Sugar Baby, the new rabbit and other chores were done. But, for the most part we hung out watching Netflix and crafting. The kids watched several shows in the living room including Monster High and Ever After High while Daddy and I completed watching all the seasons of Jail Break and I crocheted. I'm currently working on another of my nieces (I have six nieces and two nephews) blankets for Christmas, I plan on each of them getting either a toddler sized blanket (for the two youngest) or a twin sized blanket (for the other six) so that they have something that they can use for years and for most of them possibly take them to college with them. One blanket down with seven more to go!

Sunday Daddy had his regular appointment so we did the lessons we skipped on Friday while Daddy was gone. We actually got them all finished in less than an hour and a half. Noni let me know which date she'd be coming out again, I talked to Grandma on the phone about saving newspapers for the bunny cage, and did a complete load of laundry while the campers did their lessons as well. Sometimes people ask me how we seem to get everything done and that's how. I do laundry while teaching, lessons take less time than public schools because there are no breaks between subjects and there's less students, and we have our routine. YCJ literally mentioned how she does better without routines and I had to explain to her what our routine actually is. While we really have no set times for getting up or doing lessons we do have our routine. We get up, do chores, eat breakfast, do lessons, do more chores, have lunch, relax and enjoy personal pursuits, have supper, and go to bed. That's our normal every day routine ... there's not a whole lot of structure to it but everyone knows what to expect next and even if we change something for a day or two we make sure that everyone is on the same page so no one stresses out over the change. Once our lessons were done we all basically did what we chose to do for the rest of the day. Well, except for the rest of the laundry that was done ... I don't know many people who would choose to do laundry if it didn't need to be done.

Peanut in the dress
that she chose!

Monday we really should have done lessons but both Daddy and I woke up with headaches, YCJ's head and knee were bothering her, and to be honest I didn't wake up until after 11 AM (yup, slept in and don't feel a bit guilty about it). Instead of doing lessons we called the day off and just hung out and relaxed as a family. I taught the girls how to clean the entire rabbit cage, we played with Sugar Baby for a little while, and of course I crocheted. Netflix was involved in our day off as I'm sure you've already guessed. And although the weather was warm enough to play outside our yard was just one big mud pit and the girls didn't feel like getting dirty. I made a strawberry topped cheesecake and planned on soup and sandwiches for supper. All in all, even with a load of laundry, it was a very relaxing day. On Tuesday we drove down to Grandma and Papa's house so that we could go dress shopping with Grandma for Peanut's first communion dress. We hung out for an hour or so afterwards but had to get home because the girls had catechism class to attend at 5 PM. We had chili for supper and it was better than when Daddy had made it on Sunday. (We also took some chili down to Papa because it's one of his favorites that we make and he'd run out of what we'd taken him last month.) YCJ's knee was still bothering her so we set a doctor appointment up for Wednesday, she'd had a big wipe out last month on her bike and although there's no obvious evidence of injury (she'd had a bruise but nothing else that showed wrong and she can put pressure on it) it still bothers her almost daily. Better safe than sorry in our opinion though we really don't think that there's anything wrong other than she knocked it harder than we thought and it'll be ok, but we'll find out for sure tomorrow.



On Wednesday YCJ had a doctor appointment and Daddy took her to that but then picked me up to go to the hospital to get x-rays of the knee. We'll get the results from the x-rays probably on Thursday but likely we'll be seeing a specialist because there was some extra movement in the knee that the doctor didn't really like and she's favoring it so you can tell that she's in pain. She was also given a new prescription that she now needs to take nightly to see if they help with her headaches ... we're to call back about how it's working in a week or so and she's to see the regular doctor again in a month. After careful consideration of how our schedule has been this week I have decided that we'll forgo the book lessons for the week and do our online lessons along with individual projects for the rest of the week. I'll just move this week's lesson plans to next week and since we'll be taking next Tuesday off because Noni is coming and we're going on a field trip we'll possibly do lessons on Sunday this week (which is really nothing unusual for us). After YCJ cooked herself and the other campers lunch and we picked up her medicine we all relaxed for the rest of the day. Watching movies together on Netflix and playing on other electronics while YCJ tried to stay off of her knee and relax. 

Thursday Daddy and I both had appointments a few towns over so ECJ watched the girls while we were gone. YCJ's doctor called while we were out and gave us the appointment for the orthopedic surgeon which will be on Monday, YCJ has water on her knee in the joint and it could be hiding a bigger problem. So, we'll be going in to sort things out. The rest of the day after we got back was pretty much just online lessons and snuggling with the bunny. Right now Sugar Baby gets out of the cage three times a day and hops around the girls room for exercise. We learned our lesson in feeding her too much cabbage because it made her not feel so well for a couple of days and she's just now getting back to feeling normal. Daddy cooked tonight by buying us pizza, which is always a hit with everyone. Few dishes, filling food, and everyone pretty much likes the same stuff so it's simple and fast.

After reconsidering our schedule next week with YCJ's appointment and Noni coming out the next day we've decided to go ahead and do school both tomorrow (Friday) and Sunday so that we can get everything done that's in the lesson plans by next Friday. Daddy has appointments both tomorrow and Sunday so we'll simply do lessons while he's not here and keep ourselves busy. If we don't do lessons on Sunday (just depends on if I go with Daddy to his appointment or not) we'll just have to get our lessons done Monday morning to keep on schedule. No big deal. I love the flexibility of homeschooling!

Posts you may have missed this week:
Shimmer - Book Review

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