Thanksgiving and Week 8&9

Saturday Daddy had an appointment in the next town over that he went to in the morning, after I spent about an hour cuddling in bed with my grandson, Little Man. There's even a picture of me doing so. After coffee and beginning some laundry (both Monkey and I have laundry to do this day so there will be running machines all day long) I deboned some chicken and shredded it for chicken sandwiches and tacos. We saved the chicken broth from cooking the chicken overnight in the crock pot ... not sure what we're having for supper this night but we have options and I'd like to stop at the grocery store sometime today. Daddy had to go to work after he got back and this time I went with him to do my little (*new*) part time job of cleaning a lady's apartment for her since she recently discovered that she needs some help in that area. After this we did indeed stop at the grocery store to pick up a little bit of things that were needed in the house. SweetPea and the girls spent the majority of the day playing together nicely and Little Man got his first sink bath (still no submersion because his umbilical cord is still attached).



The rest of the weekend and the week was literally a blur. We didn't get lessons finished ... or even started all week long. We spent the majority of the week continuing to adjust to having a new baby in the house. Nothing all that complicated happened.

The following weekend Daddy and I took over Little Man and SweetPea for the night on Friday night to allow Monkey to get some sleep. She'd had an exciting day finding out that she started her new job on Monday (yes, she got cleared by her OBGYN to go back to work). She slept like a rock most of the night knowing that we had the babies. Saturday and Sunday we didn't do that much except for some errands and a good long nap on Sunday for myself and Daddy. ECJ is suffering from a bunch of sinus drainage and is feeling miserable. 

Monday Monkey, her hubby, and Daddy all had to go to work in the morning. This left me with five kids ages 15 - 2 weeks! I knew that I could handle it but it was a bit daunting to think about it. I had lots of help though from the Cracker Jacks. I got a load of laundry folded, another load started in the washer, settled Little Man in his bouncy chair for a quick nap and decided that we'd tackle at least this day worth of lessons as soon as SweetPea took her nap. Really there weren't many book lessons to do on the plans because next week we'll be starting The Prairie Primer for the girls! Yes, Peanut has finally finished her language arts book from last year and YCJ is close to finishing hers as well so we're just going to call it finished. I'm very excited! We haven't kept up on our Exploring Nature With Children lessons for the past couple of weeks so we'll get a nature walk (in the cold!) to look for some lichen in this week. 

On Tuesday we didn't do anything lesson whise but we had a very busy day... The campers are all suffering from sinus issues this week, as are the babies and most of us adults. It's not a head or chest cold, it's literally just sinus drainage and pressure causing us much issues with the way we feel and our general moods. Monkey and I did some errand running and took one of Daddy's friends to work ... later in the evening Daddy and I picked his buddy up from work. After Daddy had had a full day of work he went down to Grandma and Papa's house to help clean up in preparation for Thanksgiving. Wednesday everyone woke up not feeling all that well, but people who needed to work this day still got up and went to work. The babies napped well this day and after their midday nap one of Daddy's friends came by to hang out just as Daddy got home from work. We spent the afternoon visiting with him and Daddy took a quick nap while Monkey and I did even more visiting. Daddy just wasn't feeling that great this day and had to go back to work around 4:30 to meet a contractor and help someone to move to their new place. We had leftovers for supper this night (although I made chicken soup for the girls who really weren't feeling all that well) ... we spent the majority of the day relaxing as much as possible due to our sinus issues and the cold weather.

Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, we woke up relatively early and got ready to go to Grandma and Papa's house to help with making the meal and having everything ready for the afternoon. Daddy, the campers, SweetPea, and I all went down to Grandma and Papa's house shortly after waking up, eating and doing morning chores. We helped Grandma do what was needed around the house and finish prepping for supper. Supper was spectacular and we ate like kings (though this is the first year in a long time that I didn't take second helpings and skipped the pie). Everyone had a wonderful day.

That weekend (including Friday) we pretty much relaxed and hung out with each other. A friend of Dad's came over for the entire weekend and camped out on the couch, enjoying our company and making for a fun weekend.

Monday we began our lessons with the Prairie Primer , which is a literature based unit study of the Little House books that includes everything but math. The girls are really enjoying the new unit study and are finishing up their math text books from last year still. It was a long day with the Prairie Primer since I hadn't looked at how many pages I had printed off for worksheets that I'd found online and I really should have split it up over two days. Each week only has four days scheduled for lessons so on the fifth day of the week we'll do projects and catch up on any other lessons besides math and history that we'll do five days a week.

Tuesday we continued those lessons from the Prairie Primer and had a bit of an easier day because we knew what to expect and there was only one worksheet that I'd printed out for the day. The girls are beginning to enjoy this new way of doing school... On Wednesday everything went the same as Tuesday, except that ECJ went to work with Daddy for a little while to help him move some things for a resident. Then ECJ took not only each of our dogs for a walk but took one of the neighbor dogs for a walk as well. We had kielbasa and sour kraut with mashed potatoes for supper. 

Wednesday and Thursday sort of run together with lessons and chores all being completed on Wednesday. And then a rather large Christmas shopping trip with Noni and I on Thursday. We went to several stores and finished Noni's shopping for Christmas for everyone. This made for a long afternoon, but a very productive one. I also finished an order for a friend ... it's a hat for her child based off a Paw Patrol character (modeled by Monkey).

On Friday Monkey had an appointment with both SweetPea and Little Man at nine am ... so, I went with her. We cancelled lessons for this day and moved them to Saturday so that after the appointment Daddy and I could run and do several errands that needed done. We were gone until early evening and picked up pizza for supper.

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The One With the New Baby

Saturday started with coffee and being bombarded (from children young and old) with the song What Does the Fox Say? ... I definitely needed more coffee for that lol. Monkey was still having pretty regular contractions but they weren't one on top of the other and weren't too debilitating. Daddy and I ran to the store really quickly while the campers and SweetPea ate breakfast and did chores (nope, SweetPea doesn't have chores yet ... she's still working on learning basic life essentials so we won't worry about that just yet). Then Daddy went to an appointment a couple of towns over while ECJ played Call of Duty Ghost on the Playstation 3 and the girls played with Littlest Pet Shops in their room. I finished last week's wrap up post and began this week's notes for the post. Our plans for the rest of the day is to put a quick part on the car, watch The Emoji Movie as a family, and then to watch the first installment of The Hobbit after the little's go to bed. I haven't decided what will be for supper tonight so I guess that I need to go figure that out... (Monkey spent the night in the hospital for observation because she was contracting every 2-3 minutes).

Sunday morning Monkey came home, still contracting. All of the campers ate breakfast and did chores ... SweetPea was super happy to see her mommy. After a relaxing morning around the house (no mass this Sunday, lack of sleep all around) Daddy and I went scrapping right down the road. Then we stopped by the house and picked up YCJ and Peanut and went scrapping down by Grandma and Papa's house. We didn't stop by for a visit because we just wanted to get the scrapping finished. After just a couple of short hours we had a decent load of scrap to bring home. A quick stop at McDonald's to feed the girls and us (ECJ, SweetPea, Monkey, and her hubby all ate eggs and toast) we were off to the house. Monkey took a quick bath to try to help her relax and then around 9 PM, right after SweetPea went to bed, we took her back up to the hospital ... by close to 10 PM I went back up to be with her ... and before 11 PM we had a new baby!!! Little Man was born weighing 7 pounds 15 ounces and being 20.5 inches long! I stayed up at the hospital for about an hour and a half after he was born and then headed home to rest so that I could be bright eyed and bushy tailed in the morning to watch over SweetPea while Daddy worked.

On Monday morning Daddy and I were talking over our first cup of coffee for the day and decided that this would just be a break week off of school since it is going to be a hectic week. Everyone got up and ate breakfast and then did their chores. I began the first of several loads of laundry (5 this day) and kept an eye on a very active, very young big sister. ECJ took apart scrap from the night before while Daddy worked and the girls began work on their newest Littlest Pet Shop video that they were making. After SweetPea's nap, and Daddy getting home from work ... I ran with Daddy to the scrap yard and then he took me up to the hospital for awhile to visit with Monkey and Little Man. We had Taco Bell for supper this night.

Tuesday Monkey was able to come home from the hospital ... Little Man had to hang out for a little while longer to get some medications. So she went back and forth to the hospital a couple of times and called up there to check on Little Man. I spent my morning vacuuming the house and doing laundry. Supper this night was turkey meat loaf with onion gravy, mashed potatoes, and corn.

Wednesday was the big day!! Little Man got to come home. Before he came home everyone ate breakfast and did their chores. Seems like the majority of the house woke up relatively early. We couldn't pick up Little Man until after he had some testing done at noon so it was really just biding time. Then we picked him up and spent the rest of the day with people taking turns holding his little bitty adorableness... What a blessing!!

Thursday we did a lot of running around and errands, taking Monkey with us and leaving everyone else at home. We got some necessity grocery shopping done, exchanged a giant box of diapers to the next size up for SweetPea, and picked up some needed baby things. Really it didn't feel like we were home much of the day and when we were home everything was so busy because of having a new baby in the house and a little girl who just became a big sister. We're certainly a full house right now. YCJ ended up falling asleep with Little Man on the love seat during the evening.

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7th Week 17/18

Saturday we mainly hung around the house and just existed. Things are just different now with so much going on in our lives daily.Daddy did do an odd job for someone he knew and installed cabinets and a light in their craft room. On Sunday Daddy and I took the girls and SweetPea down to Grandma and Papa's house so that we could visit and also so that we could bring their patio furniture into the garage before it gets too cold out. Everything is now neatly put away either in the garage or in their storage room (a spare bedroom in their house that they use mainly for storage). We had a great visit and came home early without scrapping since the scrapping season is basically finished. 


Monday we did lessons first thing after chores and breakfast. This really didn't take long at all. We're certainly back into the swing of things. 

Tuesday was Halloween!!!! Daddy went and picked up some scrap from a customer after we did our lessons for the day and then he and I went to the scrap yard. Monkey did a lot of running around for her doctor appointment for Wednesday. ECJ dressed up as a zombie skateboarder, YCJ dressed up as a black cat, Peanut dressed up as a vampiress, and SweetPea was a zombie Sophia the First. We did pretty well in the amount of time that we took to trick or treat (the weather was chilly and we started about half an hour after others in our town, we also didn't do our regular route). But, each kid got about a third of a pillow case filled up.

On Wednesday Monkey had an obgyn appointment and the rest of us were getting ready for Noni to come by while Daddy was at work. We took the day off of lessons and Monkey and SweetPea (plus the hubby person) stayed at home while the campers and I went with Noni. We stopped at McDonald's for lunch and then went to Walmart to window shop for Christmas ideas followed by grabbing some much needed items for the home. When we got back I went scrapping with Daddy for a little bit (not much was out) and then came home and made nachos for supper.

So, now it's Thursday and we did double lessons after breakfast and chores. Just to keep on track with what I'd already scheduled. Monkey and her hubby went to the hospital to get Monkey checked out, though she's supposed to be induced this evening. SweetPea hung out with us during lessons and then took a two hour nap. Daddy had an appointment out of town and then went scrapping a bit more followed by some time at work. Tonight's supper will be pork chops and veggies. Perhaps we'll have a picture of the baby to share by tomorrow so I won't finish this post until I know for sure.

Friday came and went with no new baby in the house ... we didn't do lessons on Friday because Daddy and I had several errands to run all over the place. The campers played outside in the mild weather with their neighborhood friends and we watched a lot of Family Guy on Netflix ... just us adults. And after a quiet evening we woke up on Saturday with still no baby. Monkey's due date has been changed until November 5th from the latest ultrasound and we're currently expecting a little baby boy! Maybe next week he'll make his appearance.

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6th Week 17/18

Over the weekend Papa gave us all a scare and went into the hospital overnight. It ended up being an inner ear infection which caused an episode of vertigo which had caused him to fall. This happened Friday morning. By Sunday afternoon he was feeling up to a quick visit from us, so the girls (including SweetPea) along with Daddy and I stopped by Grandma and Papa's house to visit. We grabbed them some fruit from the store while we were at it because Papa was out of his fruit that he eats with breakfast. We then went scrapping for a bit and stopped at two parks where the campers and their niece had an absolute blast playing!

This past week was a catch-up week for us. We've been off schedule for a couple of weeks so we used this week to catch up on lessons really quick. This meant that we only had two days worth of formal lessons using the text books ... but we had a wonderful nature walk and then a really fun evening of painting pumpkins together. This week in Exploring Nature with Children it was pumpkin week! Next week, due to there being five weeks in this month, we'll be having a break week from this awesome curriculum. If you haven't purchased it yet then you might want to do so ... the price is going up at the end of October.

Painting pumpkins

We are still in the review stage with the girl's work so they're not learning much of anything new except that Peanut is now able to multiply 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4's up to 9 ... sometimes with help and sometimes all on her own. I think that it is time to purchase Times Tales for her. I have heard wonderful things about this DVD and figure that it certainly cannot hurt for her to try it. Perhaps she'll be able to multiply faster than I can after watching this DVD a few times. ECJ is still struggling with his creative writing ... but he's resigned that it's part of his curriculum this year. He also began having guitar lessons this week with a friend of ours who is giving him lessons for free (this is WONDERFUL!). 

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5th Week 17/18

Saturday I went with Daddy first thing in the morning to drop off some scrap at the scrap yard and then we stopped at a store on the way home. Daddy had an appointment a couple of towns over so he went to that while Monkey took her hubby to a job interview and then to put in another application here in town while I watched SweetPea (and of course the campers). After Daddy got home we did a couple more quick errands and then brought home Taco Bell for supper. Followed that up with a late evening trip to get some ice cream for everyone and then it was time for everyone to start getting ready for bed. Though neither SweetPea nor Peanut slept very well this night.

Photo bombed while
peeling potatoes!

On Sunday we all pretty much slept in and didn't end up going to mass. Daddy and I did a tiny bit of scrapping just around our house (down the road a bit) and then came home. The campers had done all of their chores and were getting ready for lunch when we got back. Daddy made stuffing and stuffed the turkey for supper this night before taking a nap. I updated the blog and crocheted while Monkey, SweetPea, her hubby, and the campers settled in to watch movies for the majority of the afternoon while the turkey baked ... avoiding the severe storms that were expected (though we mainly only saw the high winds). Turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and spinach were what were on the menu for supper. The girls all got their medicine and were in bed kind of early this night because SweetPea had skipped her nap (on purpose this was done so that she'd sleep better).

Playing with Littlest Pet
Shops while SweetPea
sleeps.

Monday Monkey's hubby had an interview in the morning and got the job. All of us were awake and the campers and I were doing lessons when he came home from his interview. After lessons we all basically did what we always do (except for a quick run to the next town for an errand) until Daddy came home from work and then he and I went scrapping a bit. Tuesday was pretty much the same thing just done over again. I didn't have to run to the next town to do anything this day so that was a bonus and the day went pretty much exactly as planned. We did not go scrapping this evening as it really wasn't worth it.

On Wednesday  after chores and breakfast we did some lessons and then spent the day hanging out again. After Daddy got home from work he and I took the girls with us to meet up with a friend and then, after dropping the girls back off at the house with some pizza, we went scrapping. Supper this night was homemade potato soup. 

Leaf drawing by Peanut
for last week's nature
study.

So, on Thursday, we had informal lessons all day long while Daddy and I went to appointments in the next town over followed by a run to the scrap yard after taking apart scrap and reloading the truck. Daddy and I had several places to go in the afternoon and evening so we were in and out of the house until med time. After meds, and a quick run for bananas and grapes by Daddy and I, the campers all went to sleep.

Tree drawing by Peanut for
this week's nature
study.

Now it is Friday morning. I have no lesson plans written for today ... we'll be doing our nature walk and study. I have an errand to run with Monkey around the middle of the day and Daddy will be going down to visit Grandma and Papa by himself this evening. I haven't made plans for supper tonight yet (I'll get to that) but I've already sewn my king size comforter where Moragon ripped it apart last night and have thrown it into the laundry to start. We don't have spectacular plans for the rest of the day or the weekend but we'll be busy I'm sure.

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4th Week 17/18

Saturday was a busy, interesting, exciting, and thrilling day. We woke up and Daddy and I ran a couple of errands in the next big town over and then came home. While we were gone the campers had done their chores for the most part (we were to find hidden stashes of dirt later as we were cleaning). Then Daddy and I spent the majority of the rest of the day cleaning the house, removing carpet tiles that just caught the rabbit mess and made it heck to clean up, taking some building supplies out of the house to the trash, and generally making our house a lot more clean. We were surprised late that evening by our eldest daughter calling and saying that she was here in Michigan. We drove out to meet her and have her follow her back to our house and didn't get home until around three in the morning.

On Sunday we tried to wake up early to get to Grandma and Papa's church, but that just wasn't going to happen. We actually woke up a bit too late for mass at our own church. BUT, we spent some time together with our daughter, son in law, and granddaughter. We did a little scrapping around our house, then loaded up the girls (including our granddaughter) and did a little more scrapping down by Grandma and Papa's house, finally we visited with Grandma and Papa for a bit (where our daughter and son in law met up with us). After that Daddy took our son in law and ECJ back out scrapping again while all of us girls came back to the house. We did manage to stop by a park while we were out with the girls scrapping. I made a chocolate poke cake with chocolate/raspberry frosting for desert this night. We had Daddy's chili this night for supper.

Monday Daddy had to go to work first thing in the morning, the campers and I did lessons while Daddy was at work, and of course laundry was done. After lessons we did some more cleaning, ECJ and our son in law took apart scrap with Daddy as soon as he got home ... and then Daddy and I ran to the scrap yard. After we got home and relaxed for awhile Monkey (my eldest daughter) made homemade chicken nuggets and mac and cheese for supper for everyone but Daddy and I. Daddy and I had fried zucchini for supper this night.

On Tuesday we spent most of the day relaxing after lessons, chores, and baths for all of the girls in the house. We ate leftovers for supper this night and Daddy and the guys replaced the back breaks on the truck. All in all it was a pretty easy going day. Wednesday went pretty much as expected, we took the day off of lessons because Daddy was in and out of the house most of the day and hanging out with us ... so we took advantage of it. Daddy and I ate fried zucchini and some tomato/onion/cucumber salad for supper. Bed time has been a process of staggering SweetPea (my granddaughter) and the girls bed times because they're all sleeping in the same room.

Thursday we did lessons right after chores and breakfast. Lessons didn't take very long and Daddy was home pretty quickly from work. We picked up the girls from the house and went scrapping, stopped at a park and played and did a nature study of fall leaves (from Exploring Nature with Children) for our nature study this week. We got home relatively early and picked up pizza for supper, gave the Peanut her medicine, made sure that YCJ took her medicine, and then the campers watched Despicable Me with Monkey and her husband while SweetPea went to bed.

On Friday we didn't do lessons again. Monkey took me to my doctor appointment and then we cleaned the house while Daddy was at work and ECJ and Monkey's hubby took apart the scrap. When Daddy got home he and I went to the scrap yard. We stopped at a couple of stores on the way home and then Daddy picked up Monkey's hubby (he'll get a nickname next week lol) and took him to pick up more scrap from a customer. Monkey and I took SweetPea to the store with us to pick up pull-ups and some yarn ... we left the campers at home to relax. Soon I'll be making baked chicken legs and some green bean casserole plus some corn for supper and we'll be following our new nighttime routine.

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Shortened Third Week 17/18

Friday we rounded out the week of lessons and got them all finished by around 11:30 in the morning. Daddy was at work and I followed lessons with some laundry and vacuuming. After we had everything straightened up I went into my room to crochet, this being Friday the campers have FULL access to their electronics for the weekend ... this means that once lessons are finished on Friday there are no restrictions to their electronic devices again until Sunday night. I had no major projects to finish with my crochet, just wanted to work on my gift for a friend who likes lemons. After Daddy got home he and I ran to the store, when we came home I doctored the cooked chicken that I'd had going in the crock pot for chicken casserole, I shredded the chicken and then added it to a couple of creamy soups and some cheese with noodles. It turned out very well!

On Saturday we hung out around the house with each other. Watched a lot of Netflix and chilled. Sunday we went to mass and then went scrapping near our house followed by a trip down to visit Grandma and Papa. After a quick visit where we did a couple of things that Grandma needed help getting done we went scrapping around their house. We stopped and bought everyone a soda pop and stopped at two parks while we were out.

Monday we were scheduled to do lessons, but instead took apart scrap and cleaned the house and bedrooms. It's about that time of year that we begin to go through all of the clothing that we have and donate what we no longer fit or no longer like ... also we switch out the summer clothing for the fall and winter clothing. ECJ took apart most of the scrap while the girls worked on cleaning their room. I vacuumed the house and did some laundry. After Daddy got home from work he and I ran to the scrap yard and then Daddy went back to work for a little while. Later we picked up some pizza for the campers for supper and got ourselves some fish from Long John Silver's. Our evening was spent watching Netflix, eating popcorn, and attempting to relax.

On Tuesday Daddy and I had to run some errands first thing in the morning and we didn't get home until around quarter to noon. Just as soon as we got home Daddy headed off to work and the campers and I made sure that lessons got accomplished. It only took about an hour or so to get all of our lessons done for the day. After Daddy got back from work he and I went scrapping in the next town over and once we got home I made bratwurst and french fries for supper. After supper we watched Step Dogs on Netflix and ate ice cream for desert.

Wednesday rolled around and we woke up pretty early. Noni came by after Daddy went to work and we went to the mall a couple of towns over from us to have lunch and window shop. After a quick trip around the merry-go-round we went to Walmart where I bought some shoes for ECJ and Peanut and some groceries for the house since we were running low. After Noni dropped us off and Daddy got home from work Daddy and I went scrapping down near Grandma and Papa's house, which is about an hour ride from our house but there wasn't much scrap around us this night. When we got home I made homemade tacos for supper.

So, on Thursday we all got up relatively early ... but not too early. Daddy had an appointment a few towns over so after he left to go to that ECJ started unloading the scrap from the truck and taking apart the scrap. Peanut turned on Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and curled up on the love seat to watch it. YCJ watched Netflix after taking care of Sugar Baby the rabbit and cleaning her cage. I did folded a load of laundry and started another load after changing mine and Daddy's bed linens. After Daddy got back from his appointment we loaded up the truck and went to the scrap yard. The campers stayed home and hung out together. We ran a few errands and then came home and relaxed. YCJ made pancakes for the campers for supper and I made Daddy and I some fried zucchini.

Friday, the end of the week has come. Daddy went off to work right after drinking some coffee, the campers and I started lessons, and I threw a load of laundry into the washer. Lessons were done within two hours, including the girls drawing their renditions of the harvest moon for Exploring Nature With Children. ...

Currently I'm finishing up this blog post while the dryer hums along and the girls eat popcorn for a snack. ECJ is in his room hanging out. After Daddy gets home I have a few errands that I must run and tonight we'll likely be eating homemade tacos again (so yummy!). 

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