Fall School

School started again in August.  I don't think anyone was excited about doing school at home, but I knew that if the kids were still doing zoom meetings in the fall that we would fully home school.  I never thought I would do home schooling, but I knew it was the right thing to do right now.  School has been so unpredictable and so many restrictions with a possible return to school.  I wanted consistency and flexibility and control over what they were learning.  I know the teachers did their best in the spring, but I don't think the kids learned very much.  

Nathan and Jared stayed with the school zooms (11th and 9th grade); they're fully independent and responsible for showing up to their classes and doing their work.  Owen (6th), Weston (4th), and Savannah (2nd) are doing school with Mom.  It took a little while to work out a schedule and get a routine.  We also had to rearrange the rooms a little bit.  Nathan and Jared needed separate spaces, since their zooms are at the same time.  Alex is still working from home as well, so he set up his office in our bedroom.  Nathan is in his and Jared's room, and we moved Jared into Savannah's room.  We moved all her toys and things out so she could play during the day.  We have desks in the dining room for Owen, Weston, and Savannah.  They rotate subjects so that I can help where needed and they can do the independent things on their own.  We're using The Good and the Beautiful curriculum for Language Arts, handwriting, science, and history.  We use CTC Math online, as well as Prodigy (which is a math game).  They're also doing Typesy, a typing program.  We do the full curriculum on Monday-Thursday and have a light day on Fridays (reading, journal writing, and scripture study).  We added 20 minutes scripture study to the daily schedule; they do that before they start school.   The scripture study has been good for me too, because I'm preparing study guides for them.    

Once we got the routine down, it's been pretty stress free.  No trying to hurry out the door in the morning or be on time to zoom meetings.  We start whenever we're ready.  The kids have also been running on MFW mornings, so the consistency is nice.  Usually we start school around 9:30 or 10:00.  They do 20 minutes of scripture study and then about an hour of school.  After a 30 minute break, they do another hour.  Lunch is 1.5 hours, followed by about 30-45 minutes of school.  So they do about 2.5 to 3 hours M-Th, with no additional "homework" and done by 2:30 or so.  

They have done pretty well.  Savannah is ahead in her schoolwork.  She went through a whole year of Language Arts in a semester, so she is ready to start the next level.  Weston probably struggles the most, but I think he is doing okay.  It's nice to have older brothers to help with math sometimes.  Science has been a favorite, and we even watched some of the Nature series on Disney Plus sometimes, since we were talking about mammals.   

 

20th Anniversary

We left the kids home alone overnight for the first time so we could take a quick trip to celebrate our 20th anniversary.  The kids had fun because they got the snacks and treats they wanted, as well as getting to do pretty much whatever they wanted for a couple of days.  Alex and I enjoyed our kid free time in Monterey, CA.  It wasn't very crowded at all due to Covid.  Of course there was no indoor dining allowed, no movie theaters or museums or other things open.  We did outdoor dining for one meal and take-out for the rest.  We enjoyed running in the morning and walking along the pier.   

Outdoor adventures

The end of July and beginning of August, we did some more backpacking and camping.  Alex took the boys and two of their friends on a 10 mile backpacking trip to Kearsarge Pass in the Eastern Sierras.  

 

As a family, we did a week of camping in a few different spots - Tahoe, Lassen National Park, and the Redwoods.  I love the giant trees; they're so majestic.  One hard part of the trip was taking the dog with us.  She couldn't go on the trails in the parks, so we had to take turns waiting with her in the car.  

Back at home

 When we got home from TX, we had some GIANT zucchinis in our garden.  Our neighbor had been watering for us.

It was depressing to come back from being able to swim and hang out with family in TX to our "boring" home and not hanging out with anyone.  Savannah did start hanging out a little bit with our neighbor, who has a small pool.   

We had some fun family lesson nights.  The one pictured above is when we were talking about Samuel the Lamanite, who preached from a wall, and was protected from the stones and arrows thrown at him.  Some of us took turns "preaching" while getting pegged by Cheerios.  There were Cheerios all over the floor by the end of it! 

Texas Vacation

We got in the car and headed to TX the end of June to spend a few weeks with family.  We stayed with my parents, but also got to spend time with my sisters Audrey and Ashley.  I never like the long drive, but we did have an extra driver this time.  Nathan has his driver's permit! And despite the drive, it was worth it to be able to get out of the house and see family.  We had a great time! 

We took Kai with us - she was a bit of a problem.  She quickly figured out how to push the door open to the room she was in and come in the main part of the house (she wasn't allowed in the house).  It took a few tries to contain her to her cage, which had to be attached to something else.  She also figured out how to push the cage over.  She stayed in the weight room at night and the air conditioned shop during the day (since the cat sleeps in there at night).  We did run into one bit of drama one morning when the cat was still in the shop (even though the door was open).  I didn't realize the cat was in there and put the dog in there.  She started barking and I quickly found out I shut the dog in with the cat!  Oops.  We threw Kai in the pool a couple of times, but she didn't like it.  She was pretty bored the whole time, but she did go on some runs in the morning, wishing she could chase the wildlife.    

We spent a lot of time in the pool.  Weston and Savannah learned how to swim while we were there.  We also played games, watched movies, put together a puzzle, did a coloring night and cornhole, puppet show (by Savannah), pool table, video games, Legos, and the kids rode wiggle cars down the long driveway.  We still went running most mornings and enjoyed watching the deer come right up to the house.  

We went to Sam and Audrey's for 4th of July - lots of yummy food.  (I made french toast for breakfast, frog eyed salad for dinner, and Alex made apple pie.)  Audrey and Sam did the colorful spread and the BBQ chicken.  I took some pictures of the food, but not much of the people, so I didn't even get a picture of Sam and Audrey or Ashley and Daniel.  At least Ashley took one of Alex and me and some of the kids.  Daniel's sister and her family were there too.  Their girls did the face painting.  The little kids had fun on the trampoline with the dinosaur sprinkler.    

We also got to go boating on Sam and Audrey's boat - it was a blast, especially watching Nathan, Jaden, and Jared hang on as we tried to make them fall off the tube!  Weston, Owen, and Eli also had a pretty good ride too - Weston is the one with his legs all the way up in the air.  He was holding on tight, but his legs popped up in the air. Audrey and some of the kids jumped off a cliff at the lake.  It was so hot out, so the water felt really good.     

One of my favorite things was doing church with all of us a couple of Sundays.  I really felt the spirit as we gathered together for the sacrament and shared talks and songs.  Nathan and Jaden blessed the sacrament and Owen passed it.  Ashley, Alex, Sam, and my mom gave talks.  Audrey and Sam sang a beautiful musical number "Jesus Lover of my Soul", and Eli, Noah and Mason sang "I Will Be What I Believe".  Savannah and Owen sang "I Will Walk with Jesus", and I sang "It is Well with my Soul" and shared the background to the song - about a family that lost their business in the Chicago fire and then lost their daughters in a shipwreck.  They were still able to find peace and go on to find greater purpose in their life.     

I prepared the dough and ingredients for homemade pizza one Sunday.  I think we made 10 pizzas!  It's quite a production for 20 people.  We did some other dinners too - taco salad, roast and potatoes, chicken salad sandwiches, and some other yummy food.  

We celebrated Weston's 10th birthday.  He opened some presents, went swimming, watched a movie, and got his requested meals on his actual birthday.  He wanted apple pie for dessert.  He loved his new Lego set, kindle, and stuffed piggy.  

We had a pool party later in the week for Weston and Hailey (who turned 11).  Audrey and Sam decorated the pool with weighted balloons and set up an outdoor movie.  It was so fun watching a poolside movie (most of the kids were actually in the water).  Sam also brought a steak just for Weston (which Weston wanted, but I didn't want to do steak for everyone).  The rest of us had hamburgers and hotdogs.  I made the cakes - a bulldog for Weston and flowers for Hailey (paper flowers, since I'm not good at frosting flowers).   Weston was really excited to open the present from Sam and Audrey - a pizza box with lots of "dough" in it.  His expression was priceless.       

It was hard to leave and come back home after all our fun times - loved being with family!

Father's Day and such

We had a nice Father's Day - lots of yummy food and home church.  

Alex found a new summer hobby - making apple pie (and drying fruit).  He made several pies to give away and tried to make the dried fruit faster than Savannah ate it.  We also started getting A LOT of green beans from the garden.  Nathan, Jared, Alex, and our neighbor replaced a portion of our fence.  Nathan and Jared got some practice mixing concrete.  They all did a good job on the fence. 
 

A couple of beach days

Last day of school

We survived the rest of the school year and the zoom meetings.  They each had a small ceremony on-line to celebrate the last day of school.  Weston's teacher gave everyone a couple of awards for his class.  He got Mr. Cooperative and Mathlete.  It's unfortunate the kids missed the last part of the year, but we all adapted and made it through.  I'm not sure how much learning took place, but we were consistent about the meetings and work.  

  

14 years old

We obviously had a very low key birthday for Jared this year.  We didn't do any drive by celebrating, although it was tempting to have the first "drive-by shooting" with water guns birthday celebration.  I decided somebody might be offended by the idea, and it might just be embarrassing for Jared.  We just did our little family celebration.  Jared's main present was a nicer phone (although not that nice, just better than what he had before).  It was a little interesting shopping for the phone, since we couldn't actually go in the store and browse.  We had to find what we wanted online and then sit outside the store while they got our order.  We basically just got him the same phone we got Nathan a couple years ago (Jared has the newer version).  But we knew Nathan's phone worked decently, so we just went with the same one.  Now Jared can receive text messages with photos or emoji's.  Those wouldn't go through on his other phone. He also has a little bit of data now.   

I made his requested meals - German pancakes, bacon, and eggs for breakfast, scalloped potatoes, ham, and green beans for dinner, and chocolate cake and Dr. Pepper floats for dessert.  He chose to watch Return of the Jedi.    

I was in the middle of going through the last 10 years of photos for an anniversary book, so I was seeing all these old photos of the kids.  I decided to put together some then and now collages of Jared.  They're pretty cool.