The Last Two Weeks

Well time sure flies! October is over. 2020 is coming to an end. We have the Christmas tree sitting out in the sun airing and preparing to bring it in for the season. Since Sam, in the past, called Christmas and Swiss Miss both miss miss, we've decided to make him a "miss miss tree" We're going to hand swiss miss packets and candy canes on it. 

We've finished 13 weeks of school, so we have 3 more to go before Christmas break, and everyone is still doing well and hanging in there with very little stress. I think these three weeks will go better than

The weather has been beautiful and cool. We had a two day wind storm. The air was hot, humid, and heavy, and the wind was fierce. The trees went from mostly full of their leaves to half empty. The first day reminded me of the morning before hurricane Florence in 2018. I have no idea what caused the windstorm. Cool air blew in the next day and now it is calm and cool. I checked the weather and it is supposed to get close to freezing over night tonight, so yesterday, I cut down all of my basil and dried it. That took several hours and the family was patient with me and my giant armfuls of basil. 

I planted some basil clippings in the house and the garage and some tomato clippings in the garage. So far, the basil in the house looks alive and healthy. I am hoping to keep the same tomato plant going for next year. Only time will tell. I'm trying to learn how to grow things from my own seeds and own clippings so that I do not have to rely on seed companies. 

Ruth's been working long hours on illustrations for my this year's Christmas book, and I think that I need to prepare the Bear Family's Christmas to be put out as a paperback book. 

Little Miss Suzy Q is missing her two front teeth, which is adorable. Though she has told me recently that she does not like Suzy Q, only Susan. Sigh, but I love that my little ones have their own cute personalities and feel free to tell me what they think.

We don't really celebrate Halloween anymore, but we did have a giant bowl of candy and two fun movies to watch as a family. Oddly enough, I didn't feel too attacked by my little ones. Often, I hate family movies because the little kids climb over me again and again and cry and whine the whole. Plus, they're messy. Last night was much more pleasant than that. 

Since I Last Posted

 John turned 49!!! When we got married at 21 and 25, 50 seemed incredibly old. I can't believe it is at our doorstep. 

I turned 45. I am halfway to 90 years old now. So much has happened in my lifetime, thus far, particularly with a lot of change in the past 5 years. I cannot imagine what society will look like in another 45 years if it continues on its current course. 

We've completed 11 weeks of school. So we've only 5 to go before our holiday vacation.

The fall weather has been 100% enjoyable. The leaves are changing, and it is time to get the basil dried before we have a frost. 

I finally got the van fixed. The engine light has been on since last December. So far, it is driving a whole lot better. 

The washing machine wouldn't drain. We fixed that and then it completely failed. It kept stopping and putting up a systems failure code. We tried a few things to see if that was wrong. But it wasn't it. 24 hours later, it had no power. We used Lowes to buy a new one because they have a section on their website to shop only for available models. We were able to purchase a new machine, pick it up, bring it home, and set it up all in the same day. It's a top loader with the agitator and it does not clean as well as my last two front loaders, but it won't have the door lock problems and we'll get used to it. The agitator does fluff up our towels a lot more, so we have both softer towels and more lint. 

We went to the beach for probably our last swimming trip until the spring. It was gorgeous, sunny, warm, and the kids said that the waves were so calm that it was like swimming in a lake. They really had a good time in the water. 

Gideon has been extra clingy. I can't leave the room without him getting upset. He'll go to Ruth for comfort, and he'll go on walks with John, but those are the only other people he goes to willingly without me right there.

Bizarre Susan Conversation

 Susan came up to me. With her finger she drew a line down her forehead, down her nose and all the way down her chest. Then she said, "If you get cut in half, you will die."

I said, "yes, Susan, but that's disgusting."

Susan continued, "Your heart will be split apart and it will stop working, and blood will be everywhere."

I said, "Yes, Susan blood would be everywhere, but this is gross and you know that death is sad."

Susan then said, "But if you cut off an arm, you will bleed, but you will live.  BUT, you will be like, 'hey, I can't play Minecraft.'"

Miracle

I had a miracle this week. 4 weeks ago, I started to miscarry at 8 weeks pregnant. I am sure it was a molar pregnancy as I had pregnancy stuff, but no baby. I bled steadily for 3 weeks and then it mostly stopped. On Wednesday afternoon, I started bleeding fast and a lot. After a couple of runs to the bathroom, I started collecting what was coming out of me. I caught about 20 ounces of blood in three hours, and that doesn't count the time spent in the shower or the 8 large filled pads or the other stuff earlier. It was clear that I was hemorrhaging. John gave me a priesthood blessing, and it slowed down immediately. I had no more blood clots come out from that moment on. I never passed out or had any symptoms other than losing about 7% of my blood. I know that I was healed through the power of the priesthood. 

Homeschool Update

 

We've now finished 9 weeks of school. That means that there are only 7 weeks until Thanksgiving and the holidays. This is how school goes:

I get up, and if I have enough time, I feed the animals and hang out the laundry. Sometimes that doesn't happen and I take a break in the middle of the school to feed the animals and hang out the laundry.  Next, I wake up all of the kids who aren't already awake and we have group learning time. Currently, during that time, I read:
 The Book of Mormon-- we're in Ether
Isaiah--because in 3rd Nephi we learned that Christ told the people to study the words of Isaiah-- we're

on chapter 8. 
The Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith-- we're on pg 180. There's so much to learn in this book.The Biography of Heber C. Kimball-- because I learned a great many things from that book, and my heart softened-- we're on chapter 31.
The Naked Communist by W.Cleon Skousen-- we're studying communism for history this year and this book covers Karl Marx, Engals, Russian history, American history, and the rise of communism in China. After this, we're going to read biographies from China and Cambodia. 
A Spanish lesson. On Thursday, we have a zoom lesson with other homeschool families. 
Science-- we watch videos for science this year.
The Lord of the Rings-- we start The Two Towers on Monday.

Then, the kids start their independent work and individual lessons with me. But first, I take a break and feed the animals if I did not already get to that and hang out more laundry. 

I take Adam for Math first. He is doing pre-calculus and struggling a bit. I think that we will be covering pre-calculus over two years, so he will be on the same path that Ruth took. But if he gets to the point where he can be given a problem a solve it without a lesson, then I may change my mind on that. I want him prepared before calculus and I do think at this stage there's no cutting corners. He's got to learn to think for himself and to do things without a teacher. On his own, Adam does the language arts curriculum that I wrote, geography, reading, some computer programming, Japanese, and Spanish. He's coming along, fairly well.

Next I take Rachel for geometry. She hates it, but she is getting it enough to be getting all of her problems right. She does not like to write proofs down, but when I tell her to prove something verbally, she can do it easily. On her own Rachel does the language arts curriculum that I wrote, geography, reading, Spanish, and cursive writing. 

After that, I take Susan. We go through her alphabet, sound, and word flash cards. She then reads three books to me, and we do a lesson in the Good and Beautiful language arts. Next, I read the Old Testament Stories to Susan and Sam, and finally I read a chapter book to Susan and Arwen. Curently we're reading The Secret Garden and I'm finding that it is still one of my favorite books. On her own, Susan does a math page, a hand writing page, and a phonics worksheet.

Then I take Arwen and Josh for their good and beautiful lesson, math lessons, and Josh reads to me each day. On their own, they read their scriptures, read a chapter book, do Spanish and cursive writing. They also do a math assignment and spelling words. 

Next, I do math with Anya and Joseph. They're in Algebra I and doing fairly well. Joseph gets it a little better than Anya, but they're both solving equations well. Sometimes they need reminders on negative numbers, fractions, and decimals, but those are part of their daily work anyway. 

Finally, I give Adam, Rachel, and Anya a spelling test. Adam usually passes on Monday. I simply have them practice the words and take the test until they get a 90% which is 9 out of 10 words. 

The Monopoly Game

 

John taught Joseph and Anya about probability, and Joseph got a mean idea for practical joke. He dipped pretzels in chocolate and then asked Rachel to play Monopoly with him. He told Rachel that any time anyone rolled a seven, he would get to eat a pretzel and anytime anyone rolled a 12, she would get to eat a pretzel. Rachel innocently agreed. 

As the game was going Kate came in. No one had rolled a 12 and lots of 7's were rolled, as there is a 1 in 6 chance of getting a seven and a 1 in 36 chance of getting a 12. Rachel was frustrated, and began stomping her foot. She had other people trying to roll a 12. She never did, but someone else did for her. Kate, thinking the game was all innocent on Joseph's part, began explaining probability. 

Joseph cried and cried that his practical joke had been ruined. But in the end, they all thought the whole situation was funny, including Joseph's "clever" joke, and Rachel's frustration because she did not understand probability.