Young Ladies Vocal Ensemble

 

Josie is finally on the mend. She had it pretty rough until Monday. Toward Monday afternoon Phillip got a couple smiles out of her and she ventured into the new box fort to play. The only thing she wanted to eat was refried beans! My gut instinct was "No WAY!" but she was quite adamant. She kept it down and wanted like 5 more servings over the next few days. All her clothes hang loosely on her frame now...even leggings are saggy baggy. We knew she was feeling much better because she had the best dream ever on Tuesday. She woke up excited about having a PAW Patrol dream with "so many" control towers, under the water with lots of pups, she had a squirter Marshall pup, and played with Skye as a merpup. Evelyn had a nightmare the same night that we lost all the water in the world. That sounds terrifying. Josie was quite whiney until Thursday...no one else got a tummy bug (yet) so I hope that experience is behind us. Amelia caught a nasty head cold from the girl next to her during choir practice. With Everett's cough all of us have sniffles, headaches, and such on some level or another. I repent! I will never jinx us again. 

Amelia roped the kids into participating in her volcano experiment for Earth Science. They exploded baking soda and vinegar but built the volcano layers around the flow pattern, making a spread volcano of sorts. The kids had fun with her homework. I wanted to bang my head against a wall after working on fractions with Phillip for school this week. He is so smart, just lacks focus and the attitude to want to learn about math. Everett was also quite frustrated with factions so we sat together and figured it out. The boys are starting a non-fiction research paper to check off several PLGs at once (non-fiction reading, writing, revise and share knowledge, learn and present knowledge, English usage, etc). I am excited to knock out a few requirements with one assignment. Evelyn is working with a fun new place value set I got last week. 

We did not get any school done on Wednesday due to preparations I needed to prep for Activity Day Girls. This week we worked on embroidery. Amelia helped me trace cute patterns on fabric then prep the hoops. About an hour before the activity the other leader wanted to cancel since Josie was sick. I felt so mad. Instead we moved the activity to the church and had those exposed to sick (my family) wear masks. The other leader stayed in the gym with her daughter or sat in the corner with her phone. I was not happy...yikes. Still the girls were quite excited to learn how to embroider animals of their choice. Several girls haunted my house the rest of the week working on their projects to get occasional help from Amelia or I. Right before we were to leave for the activity Phillip accidently hit Logan with the prong of our rake. Logan's eyelid split from corner to corner! Phillip was not watching his boundaries and Logan was not watching his. Phillip felt so bad. He got Logan a nice Lego set as a way to say sorry. Our Nelves made a short pre-Thanksgiving visit Wednesday night. Evelyn managed to keep her temper in check until we started to clean the school room. She went into ballistic mode. We heard Nelf bells as a warning that we are under watch. Evelyn was quite freaked out, she went around yelling, "I love you Santa...Nelves!" I was grateful she stopped her ranting, raging tantrum. We usually don't hear from our Nelves until after Thanksgiving. Josie on the other hand went to bed with a smile humming Jingle Bells. The next day she made a long Christmas list for me to somehow interpret her squiggles. She did tell me squiggle line one was a real unicorn and the second line was $100 dollars for her wallet. This morning the first squiggle morphed into a new "adoorable" set or the golden unicorn prize. She found a Santa hat and is exclusively sporting Christmas clothes.  

Thursday I got my schedule double booked, tried to undo my mistake but still managed to miss my appointment with Garrett. I have a new piano student and a dr appointment at a strange time today. That was frustrating for me. Right after piano we left for Amelia's Young Ladies Vocal Recital. Justin took her beforehand so she could warm up with her group. I picked up Clair on our way. We had time to grab some dinner at Chik-Fil-A! Yum. The recital location was packed and small for the amount of people in attendance. We were lucky a recital was even performed. It was so cold outside and like usual I was not prepared for the cold. We huddled together for warmth until I spotted a place inside for Jo and I to squeeze. A little more room opened up soon after. Amelia's group performed 6 songs, 3 at the end of the first group and 3 at the beginning of the next. She had a small solo during the 4th song. She was not feeling well at all but did her very best. 

Josie started crying this morning when she woke up because her wish did not come true. Her wish? That today was Christmas. I didn't notice she left out a stale cookie for Santa last night. Bless her sweet little heart. She is on full Christmas mode. Seems like it should come early this year.  I found her twice plunking her own version of Jingle Bells on the piano. I love the imagination of kids at Christmas. I found a cute used tree for $40 on FB Marketplace. The boys and I drove out to Middleton to pick up the tree, we loved a chance to listen to Fablehaven book 6. 

Friday we took a break from school to watch President Nelson's 15 minute global address. His address was on the healing power of Gratitude. He challenged us all to fill social media with gratitude using the hashtag #givethanks. It's a powerful thing to go from political/negative Facebook to a flood of 1.8 million updates about gratitude. I am thankful for a chance to relay my thanks for all that is good and lovely. 

The boys decided to test me this week. They spent all week dorking around and piddling about with their assignment lists. By Thursday morning they each had 9+ pages of English, half a unit on fractions to finish, and research books to read all by noon. Everett buckled down and got his work done by 11:45 on Friday. His fractions unit test was giving him troubles so he had to wait for me to help him. Phillip rolled around on the floor for two hours whining about the work. The consequence is absolutely no TV or devices on the weekend if their schoolwork is not finished by noon. He scraped by with seconds to spare. I took the afternoon off to thrift shop after dealing with the chaos of Phillip. 

Saturday we went to Lowes to get a new Christmas tree for me. I almost purchased one online but there is something about actually seeing the product before buying. I did not actually love the tree I loved online, found a different one. The kids enjoyed getting out of the house. We finally celebrated Justin's birthday with a dinner out at Wingers. All the kids were impressed with the wings. My spicy wings were so salty I couldn't eat them, I love salt but that was blech. My quest for wings in Idaho is failing miserably. The boys are still raving about how good the wings are. They even ate half of Mia's leftover "on accident." She declared mortal combat. 

Justin and I enjoyed a night out with his accounting team at Jennifer's home. She provided a catered meal for us all that was quite amazing with a salad course, main course of prime rib, mashed potatoes, and vegetables, and dessert of mint cake or baked pear. I enjoyed getting to know his team better outside of the zoom meeting cameos (accidently walking in during a meeting) and the phone calls. Their pitbull dog was quite the star of the show. He liked to trip people in the food line hoping for a bite. Then he took a snooze, complete with snores, on his favorite arm chair. I left the kids with a pot of broccoli soup, which Josie actually ate, and free reign with devices. They were quite happy with their lot.