Large Family Homeschool Life – Week 33 of 2025

I feel the need to start this week’s post off with something a little more weighty. I have to be honest…this week felt insurmountable. From the moment I looked at my calendar on Monday all I could see were a million things to do and nothing I could drop or let go of to make it better.

I ended up messaging a large family mom friend (the same one who convinced me to get Walmart+) and unloaded on her, asking her how she manages (her life is somewhat similar to mine and I knew she wouldn’t judge me for having a meltdown!).

Through the process of talking things out with her, I realized several things…

1. Other people’s expectations overwhelm me. And sometimes it is just what I *think* people expect – not what they really expect.
2. If I have made a plan and someone adds even one more thing to it, I feel overwhelmed. A lot of this is simply my personality. The only way I keep all my ducks in a row is by KEEPING MY DUCKS IN A ROW.
3. There is obviously not enough margin in my day if one thing throws me off. And while I can’t truly drop any of the balls I have in the air, I need to manage them better.
4. Plans are useless, but planning is essential (my version of the famous Dwight D. Eisenhower quote) – I do best when I have some plans written down. That way, when something comes up that is extra, I don’t completely lose my place.

So, in this week’s post, I’ll share just a bit of what I did all week, plus what I am doing to start managing all of this a wee bit better.

In our homeschool this week, we studied the High Middle Ages, much of which revolved around The Crusades. We had a lot of lively discussions about whether or not the Crusades were a “noble” part of Christian history and if we see this sort of Crusader-ism in Christians today.

We also finished our read aloud – Anna of Byzantium.

A lot of our read alouds this year have featured female protagonists, and my boys have been rather disgusted by most of them (although they can often be heard quoting Anne of Green Gables saying, “That leaves no scope for the imagination!”). However, my 10 year old daughter has loved them all – including Anna!

Next up is Robin Hood, so we’ll see how that fares with my crew!

All in all, I am pleased with the direction of our homeschooling. I did some homeschool planning Tuesday evening, and we are on track to finish Unit 1 of Year 2 of Tapestry of Grace in time for our last vacation of the season, after which we will start Autumn Homeschooling and Christmas School! (Can you believe it?!)

You can read all about how we do that here…

Now, a little bit about my week beyond the homeschooling:

As most of you know, my mom lives with us in a studio apartment in our basement. Friends of ours helped us build it while Ty was deployed last year, and now our 20 year old daughter is marrying one of their sons! (We like to joke that to get the apartment built, we had to sell our daughter to the carpenter’s son.)

Having mom here has changed a lot of things for us, including her own life. She is no longer driving, so either I or our 20 year old (and now our 24 year old since she moved back) have to take her to appointments and grocery shopping. Some appointments she takes a bus to, but I feel like doctor’s appointments ought to be attended by me so I can keep track of things.

It seems of late, when it rains, it pours with these medical appointments! Either mom has no appointments or she has 5 million! This week was a week of the 5 million.

On Monday afternoon, I took my mom to get an xray on her ankle (it’s been bothering her for 2 months). On Tuesday afternoon, I took mom to get a root canal (I ran errands while they hacked away on her). On Wednesday morning, I took mom to the cardiologist AND the orthopedist (and then I got a well-deserved massage!).

Part of what overwhelmed me was that I broke my cardinal rule of no appointments on Mondays or Tuesdays. But, when that’s the first available appointment and mom really needs to get in to see someone, that’s what you do.

BUT…I am determined to do better with this. I really need appointments to stay on Wednesdays or Thursdays if at all possible. I just do better when they are limited to only 2 days a week. It gives me more margin for the unexpected things in life…of which there seem to be a lot!

By the way, because of the overwhelm of this week, I researched digital calendars A LOT! I looked at Skylight, Hearth, and Cozyla.

I finally decided to try simply syncing my Google calendar (that has become my LIFE!) to our Alexa Show and see if that helps. The Alexa is in our kitchen (we use it to play music, contact the kids, check recipes, and the kids watch their favorite YouTubers when it’s their turn to wash dishes). I’m hoping the kids can use this to see where I am and what I’m doing and even potentially help out when they can.

Another thing that really stresses me out when I am this busy is FOOD! Meals are just too much for me to manage. Another friend of mine informed me that on her busy days, sandwiches are the norm and they eat A LOT of sandwiches – and that may be a solution for us in the future. But this week, I decided to have other people cook, and the one meal I did cook was super easy! Here’s what we had…

Monday – Our 19 year old son and his family brought over food to smoke. We had a cheese dip, chicken kabobs, and fajita chicken.

Tuesday – Caesar Wraps
These are super easy – air-fried lightly breaded chicken bites (ours were Perdue brand), Caesar salad mix (from Aldi) wrapped in tortillas.

Wednesday – Chicken Alfredo
Our 20 year old daughter with the help of our boys (ages 16, 14, & 12) made homemade chicken alfredo with added mixed veggies.

Thursday – Because it was Special Night, the kids ended up eating boneless wings and I had some leftover ground beef mixed with broccoli and cottage cheese and sprinkled with parmesan cheese.

Friday – Smoked Frozen Pizzas & Street Corn Dip
This was the night of our 14 year old’s pre-birthday birthday celebration/campout! There were 11 boys in our basement doing a huge video game bash (plus our 27 year old piped in through Discord). Later, 6 of them camped out in the backyard.

Our 14 year old smoked frozen pizzas for everyone along with smoked street corn dip, so I didn’t have to do much.

Other things to note about this week:

Ty came home from Ft. Bliss – He was at Ft. Bliss for 2 weeks and we sure did miss him! It was nice to have him home for the weekend + Monday because that was a scheduled day off for him.

Boys haircuts – I am working on a new method of cutting their hair and I really like how it turned out! The 12 and 16 year old’s tend to wear their hair pretty short, but the 14 year old has a massive number of cowlicks, so he often keeps his hair longer to avoid looking like a rooster. Using this method, I was able to freshen up his haircut and make it a lot shorter to finish out the summer months. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out!

Special Night – These have morphed a lot over the years! You can read THIS POST to see how we’ve celebrated Special Night over the past dozen years or so. This week, it was our 16 year old’s turn. He chose boneless wings and Arizona tea.

Paddle Boarding – A new friend and I went out paddle boarding this week. We went a little over 3 miles and chatted the entire time. I’ve been paddle boarding with her before, but never just the two of us, so it was nice to get to know her better. And nice to get in such a great workout!

Other Exercise – I’ve been alternating between walking and strength training every morning, with one day off a week. I can definitely tell I am building muscle and I feel stronger. This seems like something good I can do to help me manage all the other crazy!

There you have it…Week 33 of 2025!