Inauguration Week

 

I didn't know what to title this particular entry...it's been a boring week. We celebrated Martin Luther King day like most every other day. The boys learned about him in their Monday Social Studies zoom meetings. Inauguration day felt like an ominous day, nothing untoward actually happened...except the democrats ruling the government now. Since Wednesday Biden worked hard to undo all the things Trump worked hard to accomplish. It's like a new president HAS to erase the former president before he can snuggle into the chair of power. I bought extra bags of flour, oatmeal, and dried milk to celebrate the coup. My dad sent an excellent review of conference via email. Floored me that he listened to conference like 15 times in double speed, the things you can learn in solitude! What can one learn in chaos? Feels like survival. I've had school for next year on my mind. Trying to decide if homeschooling is our jam or just to get through the COVID crisis. I know next year I would do things much differently with more book curriculum if we continue this avenue. I feel like Phillip would flourish better at school, he responds much differently with a teacher in a public setting. 

Half of the family ended up with the sniffles this week. Mia and I skipped the gym two days since she was not feeling well at all. Evelyn had the worst of the germs with a cough and runny nose. Josie went to gymnastics by herself on Tuesday. I stayed in the gym to watch her. Once again she freaked out on the balance beam. She was doing so well then realized she was high off the ground. I looked over to find her grasping the underside of the beam with her hands and feet yelling, "No! I'm a baby koala!" Her coach pried her off the beam, Josie then went full Koala mode on her teacher refusing to unlatch her hands or feet in favor of the beam. The adults were all trying very hard not to laugh, Josie was crying. It's hard to face your fears, even with a soft mat underneath you. 

The kids had quite the time this week playing "fox holes" in the school room. It was a disaster by Friday morning. The kids each had a fox hole (pile of blankets and pillows under a desk of chair) split up by unused bunk bed rails. I invited the Ostler's to come help us clean up the mess, took only 10 minutes and no whining. Phillip worked hard to assemble his last Christmas Lego: Lady Luck the pirate ship. He is massively proud of his largest project to date. Sometimes the mermaid prow is replaced with the shark! Ha ha. 

I had a meeting with the student success team to add accommodations to Phillip's 504 specifically for testing. We are trying to find a testing site he can go to instead of testing at home because of all the distractions. The boys worked extra hard this week and finished passing off the last of the PLGs for the year. Now our bi-monthly reports can be focused learned the fun stuff in math, ELA, Science, and Social Studies. 

Mia spent a chunk of time this week planning a surprise birthday party for Josie. She created the cutest invitations for her party, hand decorating the cards with lettering. Saturday we delivered 5 invitations to some folks we know like the Palmers, Potters, Tiny Chloe, Hyde's and the Ostlers. I ordered the cheapest power wheels on Walmart clearance for $80 cheaper than any other model, thankfully the car is pink. Amelia and I searched Amazon for Koala party supplies. Josie will be thrilled with her koala pinata, favors, and decor. I even found a fun $15 over-large koala she can snuggle with. Her favorite show right now is "Izzy's Koala World." She found a night dress at Walmart earlier in the week, she wore it for 4 days in a row. By Friday her hair was messy enough it stuck out of her sleeping mask like her own pair of koala ears. 

I'm busy figuring out how to work my magic on a laptop...a MAC laptop at that. It's quite a change from the PC. Somethings are very similar to my iPhone so that is nice. Other things are quite frustrating like finding my files and re-wiring my brain to understand how the MAC stores things like my files. It is magically fast with editing on Lightroom and Photoshop.