Sunday: Trying to take a 13 month old photo but Talea really didn't want to sit, she wanted to exercise her new walking skills.
Monday: I took this to document this phase of our life. Every morning I pack Nathan 3 meals in his lunchbag: lunch, dinner, and 9pm meal. Nathan leaves for work at 8:45am and comes home between 11pm and midnight Tuesday-Saturday. Mondays he comes home around 7pm to catch the end of FHE so I only pack 1 meal and 1 snack and leave dinner out for him.
It's always a puzzle sticking everything into his lunchbag so that everything fits and it can zip up.
For our schedule so far this school year Talea and I wake up around 6:30 and I nurse her in bed and have some quiet thinking time (or doze). Then I take her for a walk from 7-7:40ish. Then I get breakfast for the little kids and wake up the older kids who come join us by 8. Then I pack Nathan's lunch, supervise chores, clean the kitchen, start laundry, etc. Nathan leaves at 8:45 and I start school or take the little kids for a walk if I haven't gone yet. We do science and read aloud together-- outside if we went on a walk b/c the little kids don't want to come in. I love doing school outside anyway. Afterward the kids do their personal subjects like math, spelling, handwriting, practice instruments, etc. We have lunch from 11-11:30, clean up, and put Talea down for a nap at 12. The little kids have quiet reading time on the couch while I read my own book and ride my exercise bike and sometimes shower. Then we finish up school, have snack at 2:00, hang out and chat, run errands, start dinner, or do whatever's going on. It's been good and I'm excited to have a year without a newborn or being pregnant. I think I'm going to be a much better teacher and not slack off so much.
Tuesday: We did a writing assignment about ice cream so then we made ice cream with raw milk. It was delicious and only took 6 minutes! Simply pour the raw milk into a ziplock bag, add a touch of vanilla if you want, put it inside another bag with ice and massage it for a few minutes. I'm not an ice cream person, but I really liked it. The little kids were creative and added raspberries or other fruits to make a berry ice cream.
Reading as a storm started brewing.
Here comes the storm! We will always miss the NC storms. It's the #1 reason why we don't like Utah. Not green enough and not enough thunderstorms!
Wednesday: These 4 went to the temple, the last time before Kylie goes to college. It's been so fun having 4 youth together. Right now Alexis is 13, Spencer is 14, Madalyn is 16, and Kylie is 17. Next year when Thomas turns 12 we'll have 4 youth again but Madalyn is going to college a year early (she's always been a year or two ahead in school) so we won't really have 4 kids going to youth activities together like we did this year.
They're such great youth. I couldn't have asked for any better!
As soon as they came home we had lunch and then Madalyn, Spencer, and Alexis got ready for seminary. They're going to be in the same class this year and got their favorite teacher. Kylie quickly made brownies from scratch to drop off and say hi to everyone at seminary.
Thomas is taking cello at the middle school orchestra. Here is his first day of public school ever. It's just from 10-11 every other day, but it's a big deal for him.
(They don't bring instruments until Sept. 4)
Another rain shower! We just sat down to eat when all the kids jumped up and ran outside. They'd much rather watch the rare storm than eat.
The food left behind getting cold.
And the baby who got left behind too.
I abandoned dinner too and rode a scooter around and had a great time with all my children playing in the rain.
Thursday: Thomas graduated from Webelos and got his Arrow of Light award.
Pinning something on me.
And another something on me.
Getting some loot at the scout store. They redeem points they've earned for things like wearing a uniform, coming on time, good behavior, etc and get to pick out prizes.
After awards we did a rain gutter regatta.
Unfortunately Nathan missed the awards but he did get to enjoy the regatta.
Talea practiced her walking skills all over the parking lot.
These two sat and read. :)
I love how Spencer got a group of cub scouts going on a game of football.
Thursday night: I made a lot of peach jam, raspberry jam, and my favorite peach-raspberry honey jam. I was also drying fresh herbs my neighbor lets me pick from her herb garden and sprouting black beans for Sunday's soup. It feels good to feel industrious. I've always wanted a big garden, orchard, or small farm, but I'll take what I get: produce from neighbors, farmer's market, and cooking from scratch as much as I can.
Friday: Madalyn and Spencer practicing a fancy piano duet.
Saturday: While going through bags of clothes someone gave us Alexis dressed Talea up and took pictures. I should have taken pictures of Lexi because she had layers and layers on and was so silly.
Going through the girl shoes.
