Random Busy Week

Remember how last week I was talking bout life being at a slower pace. Well I spoke to soon - or maybe too late. This week was randomly busy. I had somewhere I had to be four evenings in a row and I had other things to worry about each day.  It was the busiest week our family has had in at least 6 months. 

So let's take a look. 

Monday the 14th was our very first day of the onsite program for our homeschool. Remember our last day of "real school" before COVID shut everything down was Friday March 13th. So it had been 6 months since the kids had been to school anywhere besides our house. 

We'd carefully laid out clothes, shoes and masks the night before. I was expecting it to take the a while to get ready for school in the morning, but they all got ready fairly quickly. Derrick was in his jacket and shoes before I was even dressed for the day. School started at 9:00, but is on the complete other side of town from our house so we planned to leave no later than 8:30. The kids were ready earlier than expected so we left at 8:15.   

We took a "first day of school" picture before we left. Two kids were excited. Two kids weren't so excited.

But Charlotte and Lydia were looking forward to tricking the teachers, this is the first time they've ever been in the same school class.

The onsite program is held at a church. Our school isn't religious based - this is just the biggest place that the program could rent. We arrived early and spent some time walking around the grounds before heading inside.  

Brandon and I both came to help drop off the kids. Earlier in the week Brandon had been talking to the program director about helping teach the art class. So he came along to see what the program was like. I was there in case Derrick had a melt down. None of us really knew how he'd react to school after being out of it for 6 months. 

I'm glad we were there. 

This homeschool program isn't exactly new, but it's operating at a much larger scale than ever before. There were quite a few growing pains on this first day. It reminded me a lot of what Primary is like on the first day after a ward has been created or reorganized. The Primary Presidency doesn't know any of the kids' names and is hoping that love will be enough to keep the kids well behaved. The kids sense that no one knows their names and act out by either not paying attention or by seeing what they can get away with. The teachers have no idea who should be in their class or even where their classrooms are. And there is just a general level of chaos. 

For us the chaos showed up as the children were divided into classes. A teacher read off the kids' names and they were supposed to line up with their group. Well after all the names had been read there were still about 15 kids without a group- and my four were part of those 15. 

So then we had to figure out where they went. Someone gave the third graders vague instructions that their classroom was upstairs. I went with Derrick and two other kids to help find the room. We wandered around for a while before we found the classroom for the 2nd/3rd grade group. I helped Derrick find a seat at a table. Then I looked over and discovered that Veronica was sitting at the other table. 

I basically did a double take before exclaiming, "Veronica, what are you doing in the 2nd/3rd grade room?"

Derrick seemed to be doing okay so I left him with a helper sitting by him. (My friend Kaymee was also in there with her 2nd grade daughter and I knew she'd text me if anything crazy happened.) Veronica and two other 1st graders came with me to try to find the real first grade classroom. Meanwhile we passed Brandon who was trying to help the twins find the 4th grade classroom. The teachers finally just said to put them into which ever room had the fewest kids. 

Me and my trio of 1st graders were told to go to another room downstairs from the main room. But when we got there we were told it was just for Kindergarteners. So we went back to the main room. Someone else took us back to that Kindergarten room and it was magically turned into a Kindergarten/1st grade room. 

Yes, it was chaos, but I honestly didn't mind. I told the teacher in charge, "This is the most excitement we've had in 6th months." Privately I'd decided that even if this was a disaster of  first day, at least the kids were learning that sometimes disasters happen.

Brandon and I met up with each other and then took a minute to talk to the teacher in charge to give her Brandon's contact info. Then we decided that we might as well take this opportunity to go on a date.   

We wanted to stay close so we just drove over to the shopping area near the school and went through the drive in at BurgerKing to get breakfast. This was the first time we've been together without kids around during daylight house in more than 6 months. 

It was about time for Brandon to head into work so he took my back to the school and then went to work. I'd been debating what I should do next. My office is on the other side of town. It would take at least 15 minutes to get there. By the time I got there I would have about 45 minutes to get anything done before turning around to pick the kids up from school. Plus I couldn't know for sure that Derrick wouldn't meltdown in the next 5 minutes.  I'd decided to just tell my boss I wouldn't be in at all that morning. Monday's are a quiet day in the office so it was an okay day to miss. 

 I went back into the school and hung out in the main room for a few minutes. Veronica's class had rotated in there and I could see her listening to the teacher. 

When that hour ended her class left and Derrick's class came in. He saw me right away. I went over to him and found us both chairs. I could tell he was getting close to done for the day. He snuggled up to me and relaxed quite a bit. Charlotte and Lydia's class also came in. Lydia snuggled up on the other side of me. They were pretty done too.

I gave Derrick my phone and let him watch a 5 minute timer count down over and over again. That kept him calm. We avoided a major meltdown by my being there.

When school ended I had to track down Veronica's back pack and Derrick's mask. We also found Veronica. Then we headed home. Everyone was completely wrung out from such a chaotic morning. So after lunch we just watched Youtube and Magic School Bus videos. 

After we were done with our "school" we went to the Halloween Store because I'd promised Derrick we'd go there if he was happy at school. He's been there with Miss Natalie a few times so he already knew all the scary animatronics. He had fun setting them off and scaring his sisters. We looked at costumes and got ideas for costumes. 

By the time we got back home, I only had about an hour before I needed to take Veronica to her soccer game. I made quesadillas for a quick dinner for the kids. Since Derrick had been such a wildcard at Veronica's last weekday game I didn't want to bring him again. Instead I dropped him off at Brandon's work. Brandon was riveting when we got there so I took a quick picture of that. Brandon bought a pneumatic rivet gun just for this project and he loved how easy it made the job. 

Derrick stayed and played games on Brandon's phone while Brandon finished up work. Veronica and I hightailed it back across town. It takes forever to get to the soccer fields, but we made it on time for her equipment check.  Whew!  

Here she is lining up with the other girls. There's another girl kind of in front of her, but you can see Veronica's head is much higher than all the other girls. 

I'd been feeling a little grumpy about this whole soccer thing. The games were only 50 minutes of playing time, but they stretched out to and hour and 15 minutes with all the time outs. And it took at least 30 minutes to get there. I was wondering if this was really worth our time. 

But then Veronica had an amazing game. She got the ball a few times and ran it all the way across the field where other girls were able to kick it in. When she played defense she blocked a few goals. She paid attention better than she ever has before. And she loved playing. Our team only had 11 girls so sometimes Veronica stayed in when other girls subbed out. 

Here we are at the end of the game. Veronica was so proud of herself. 

And that gets us to the end of Monday. Yes all that was just the first day of the week. 

Tuesday was another busy day. I went to work and had to play catch up from missing Monday. We don't have a receptionist right now so I also had to follow up on calls that had come in on Monday. I'd gone in a little early and stayed half an hour later than usual. I made it home, just as Derrick was getting home from therapy.

Homeschool went really well. I think the kids were grateful they didn't have to go to onsite school every day. After school ended I took Derrick to his weekly speech therapy appointment. I was trying to read a book while I waited in the lobby, but I kept falling asleep. Derrick did fabulous. He's finally got used to his therapist so he does really well with him.  Plus he earns a can of rootbeer every time he goes to therapy.

I made dinner and we ate it when Brandon got home. I had a few minutes to check on my garden. (Don't these tomatoes look so good! And then it was time to head to Symphony Rehursal. 

Our conductor had sent out Youtube links for the songs we'd be playing and I'd listened to them several times over the last week. I'd even listened to them at work. My main goal was to not get lost during rehearsal. I didn't worry about whether or not I could play the notes, I just focused on knowing where I was on the page. 

And it worked!  I followed along the entire time. I think I even played better than I have so far. Now to work on notes. 

I'm always completely drained after rehearsal. So when I got home I just sat on the patio with Brandon and talked his ear off about music.  He's always really interested in this part of my life. I think he always thought I played the cello so the fact that I brought home a bass was a surprise. Every week I tell him another thing about music culture and he's just amazed.

Wednesday was another catch up day at work. I went in early again and by the end of the morning I felt more on top of things than I had on Tuesday. 

At home the girls showed the claw and koosh balls they'd made from Veronica's Kiwi crate.

One of the things Miss Natalie is working on with Derrick is to learn about which adults he can talk to and which to not talk to. She arranged to take Derrick to the police station to meet a police officer. He had a great time. 

We had a good time with out afternoon home school. We are fairly close to finding a good rhythm to our days. 

We had to cut school short this day though because Derrick and Veronica had an appointment to get flu shots. Last year we took at four kids to get shots at the same time and it was a disaster. All three girls had been hysterical. (Derrick had been super unflustered and even thanked the nurse after his shot.) Part of the problem was that I'd told the kids a month a head of time about the shots. Charlotte and Lydia had worried about them the whole month. After last year's nightmare I told the kids, "Next year I'm not going to tell you that we are getting shots until we are in the parking lot of the dr's office."  And I held to that this year. 

I just told Derrick and Veronica we were running errands. They didn't even ask any questions until we pulled up to the Dr's office. Its in the same building as Derrick's speech therapist so Derrick asked, "Hey why are you bringing Veronica here?" And Veronica was asking, "Why are we at the doctors?"  I said, "Well, it's time for your flu shot."  I fully expected Veronica to cry. Instead she surprised me by saying, "I can do this."

We walked into the office without any drama. Derrick held Veronica's hand while we waited. When we went into the room he volunteered to go first. I told the nurse that Derrick's arm had swelled up last year. She recommended doing the shot into his thigh this year because it was a bigger muscle. So we had Derrick pull down his pants and lay down. This was a little hard for him and he started crying as I held his hands down. But as soon as the shot was over he was fine. He even gave the nurse a hug and said thank you. 

Veronica started crying when Derrick started crying. But the nurse told her to take a deep breath and she was able to calm down.  The shot was over before she knew it. 

When it was all over I gave them the choice between getting ice cream or going to the dollar store and getting big lollipops. They chose lollipops. 

I'd been hoping that Derrick's leg wouldn't swell, but on Thursday I checked it and it was larger than his other leg. Fortunately, I knew what to do this time. Last time I'd assumed it was an allergy and that he needed Benadryl. That hadn't worked and his arm had swelled so much it was hard and tight as well as red and hot. Two days after his shot I'd had to take him to the doctor where they recommended ibuprofen. That had helped his arm deflate over the next few days. This time I knew to start with ibuprofen.  So I gave him ibuprofen on Thursday and noticed that his leg wasn't as swollen on Friday. By Saturday Derrick was telling me, "My leg is squishy again." We'd completely avoided the hot and red phase this time. 

Okay back to Wednesday. Part of what made this week so busy is that it was a perfect storm of all my little commitments coming together in one week. I had soccer which is only a September thing, Symphony which is only a Tuesday thing, and my Autism support group which is only a monthly thing all happening in the same week. Wednesday was the Autism Support group. It started at 6:30. I got there at 6:15 to set up. Then I grabbed my work laptop and answered emails. By 6:45 no one had shown up. And so I left at 7:00. I wasn't even sad that no one came, I was so grateful I could go home. 

Brandon's boss had given us a pallet of sod he'd cut out of his backyard when he made room for a deck. Brandon was using it to fill in the dirt spots from when we had to dig a trench for our sprinkler pipe. Brandon had been planning to go grocery shopping when I got back, but he was in the middle of the project and completely dirty. So I said I'd go. Charlotte happened to be walking by and asked to go too so I said he could come. 

We went to Winco, but as we were walking to the building Charlotte saw Target and said, "I've never been in this Target." So of course we had to go in there first. Here she is with a costume she liked. 

After Target we headed to Winco and did the grocery shopping. It was fun to do that together.

Thursday was another busy day at work followed by a good afternoon with homeschool. I'd not been looking forward to having to take Veronica to soccer practice that evening. So when I got an email that practice was cancelled I was pretty happy. Then I read the email and saw that it was because the coach had been exposed to COVID. I wasn't as happy about that. 

But it was nice to finally have a free evening. I laid on the couch and read a book while Brandon worked on installing a cable out to the garage.  

I finally finished reading a book I've been working on for a while. This is what I said on Facebook about it. 

Yes, I read ANOTHER book about racism. After the death of George Floyd I looked up a list of books about racism and requested many of them from the library. I wasn't the only one who did that so it's taken a while for my turn for each book.

I just finished How to Be an Anti Racist by Ibram X Kendi. Of all the books I read this summer, this is the one I recommend the most, but be warned its a challenging book.

It's full of explanations of the history behind racist policies and the thoughts those policies inspired. There are also deep philosophical dives into how racism presents itself. These were sometimes a little more than I was prepared to engage with - I fell asleep while reading this book more times than I care to admit.

But what kept me going was the way the author wove his own journey toward antiracism into the book. I LOVE memoirs, so I thoroughly enjoyed those parts of this book.

The author's willingness to share his personal journey really makes this book stand out. Earlier in the summer I'd started two other similar books, White Fragility and So You Want To Talk About Race . Those books were okay, but they ultimately didn't hold my interest. I didn't finish either one.

How to Be an Antiracist is thought provoking and excellent. I'll be thinking about this one for a long time.

On Friday I had a flu shot scheduled for myself. So I went to do that while Brandon taught the kids science. I came home and discovered he'd mounted a pully to the beams in the laundry room and was teaching the kids about simple machines. Um yeah, his kind of the coolest homeschool science teacher ever. And yes, that is a lap coat he's wearing. 

Miss Natalie took Derrick to the National Guard Amory. Derrick was so excited to see tanks. 

And an Army Man.

But when he got home, all that excitement was gone.  He was done with the week and was NOT interested in settling down for school. He threw a fit in his room while I tried to work through social studies with Charlotte and Lydia. 

Later he did calm down and we worked through his social studies.

While I worked with Derrick the girls laid out my tan blanket and said it was a desert. Then it became a beach. 

They added a blue blanket and found all their sea creatures.  Later they added the Barbies and had beach blankets. They played with this beach the rest of Friday, and most of Saturday and Sunday too. Derrick even played for a couple hours. 

We watched Halloween Town for movie night, and I slept through it.

Saturday was a super productive day. Veronica wanted Brandon to take her to her soccer game so he could "see all my moves."  So Brandon took her to her game. He was able to see her score a goal!

I stayed home with the other three and rallied them to help clean the house. 

When Brandon and Veronica were done with the game they stopped at home depot and bought things to fix our toilet so it didn't rock. The toilet in the kids bathroom has rocked every time anyone sat on it ever since we moved in. Brandon has known how to fix it (of course), but hasn't been eager to do it. We'll Saturday was the day. I helped him take the toilet off, and he cleaned up the old wax seal. He also scrapped some gross looking old caulk off the floor. It was a big project. 

Meanwhile I wandered outside and took pictures of the pretty morning glory flowers. 

They look so good. We re growing these here every year from now on.

And here's a little garden check in. We have so many tomatoes that are ripe and I love that pumpkin.

My mom sent me some scrap book pages that my Aunt Lori made for my Grandma. My grandma gave them to my parents and my mom has now given them to me.  They are such a treasure. I had fun showing them all to my kids. They couldn't believe how young everyone looked. 

Lydia and Charlotte spent a lot of time making bungalows for their beach.

Here are some before pictures for another project. We are taking this shed down this fall. 

Most of the shed is junk, but we are going to reuse these shelves. 

This shed doesn't even have a real floor, it's just dirt. It would be more work to fix this place up then to replace it.  

The plan is to tear it down and put a green house and more garden here. The green house may take a few years, but the garden will go in right away. 

Oh and here is an after picture of the toilet back in place. It doesn't rock anymore!  Brandon said, "Lots of things rock. Toilets should not be one of them." 

Here's Veroninca playing with the "beach."

On Saturday afternoon Derrick and I went to the CSI Challenge Course for a Boys Activity with our ward. This was set up by the wonderful Amy Toft. Amy is the lady who got me re-connected with playing the string bass. Now she was unknowingly re-connecting me with another important part of my life from 20 years ago.

I went to my first ropes course at BYI-Idaho when I was 15 and it changed my life - or at least my outlook on life. I learned that obstacles can be overcome and that you don't have to do things completely on your own. There is always something supporting you. Also you are braver and more capable than you think. 

Two years later I went back to that ropes course. And three years after that I became a ropes course instructor at the Snow College ropes course. The two summers I spent on that ropes course were some of the best of my life. 

It's been a long time since I went to a ropes course and so I was super happy that I was able to go with Derrick. He was thrilled as well. We'd watched youtube videos of the course and so he knew exactly what to expect. 

The staff started the boys off with some team building games. Derrick did just about as well as any of the other boys. 

He loved the sideways climbing wall. (Those lessons from spring 2019 finally paid off.)

But of course the best part was when he was ready for the high events. 

He wanted to be the first one to walk on this wire, but I made him wait and watch some other boys do it first. When it was his turn he climbed up fearlessly. I was so proud. 

Then he did the log. 

Again he had absolutely no fear.

His favorite part was coming down because he got to fly.

The staff asked if any parents wanted to do it. Some of the dads who'd tagged along did it and I did too. It's been 14 years since I did a ropes course event like this. I wasn't sure what it would be like. I was actually surprised by how calm I felt. I've done way scarier things than this in the last 14 years. What's walking on a wire compared to taking 4 toddlers out in public?

Here's some still pictures. Climbing the staples brought back some fun memories.

I think the ropes course I worked at had rules about not touching the harness rope, but that wasn't a rule here and I was happy about that. 

I definitely had to focus to balance.

And here I am coming down. 

It was so much fun!  I thought that would be my only event, but they also had time for me to do the log one. I haven't found those pictures yet.

Here's Derrick doing one last turn on the catwalk.

The kid had no fear at all.  He keeps asking when we get to go back.

Back at home Brandon had pulled all the shelving out and was getting ready to hose it off. 

We had dinner outside for the first time in a long time. (It's been either too hot, too smoky, or too cold for the last few weeks. 

Here's the pretty fountain.

Back inside Lydia showed me the finished bunglow.

She'd even made jungle clothes for the family. 

Brandon and I stayed up late watching Cobra Kia on Netflix. We were able to sleep in until after 9:00 this morning because the kids played with the beach when they first woke up. We left the beach up all day nd then sadly cleaned it up to get the room ready for school again tomorrow. 

Next week is looking to be another busy week. We have Veronica's last week of soccer, plus her birthday. But after that we are going to be back into our slower tempo - at least I think we will. 

Thanks for reading!