Large Family Homeschool Life – Week 2 of 2024

Back to homeschooling after the holidays, but snowstorms definitely changed our schedule this week!

Read all of the Large Family Homeschool Life posts!

MONDAY

It’s been a while since we did school, what with the holidays and my grandma’s death just 10 days shy of her 104th birthday . That’s also why there haven’t been many Day in the Life posts. Too much LIFE, not enough DAYS!

We waited until this weekend to put away Christmas decorations. For several years now, we have waited until the day after Epiphany on January 6th to take down our decorations. As we try to follow the Church Calendar more and more, we are finding a nice rhythm to our everyday lives. You can find more about how we are doing this in the following post:

But now that Christmastide is over, it is time to jump back into our regular homeschooling. Or so I thought…

This morning, my husband needed me to run some errands with him before the snowstorm hits, so I had the kids work on their independent school work with the 19 year old available for questions while I was away, knowing we’d do Morning Time in the afternoon.

As we were leaving, the snow really picked up. It was a slushy, wet snow that would end up leaving quite a bit on the ground before it was all said and done.

We started out at the Army clinic for some annual stuff Ty needed to do, and then we headed to Walmart (with all the other crazies stocking up for Snowmageddon). I grabbed some yarn to work on some more granny squares. A friend got me started on them after I “won” yarn and a crochet hook at a Christmas white elephant exchange. I learned to crochet when I was a kid in 4-H, but I’ve never been great at it and I never learned to make granny squares (unlike my 23 year old daughter who is super talented and able to sell her creations!).

Here’s one of my first squares…

The same friend who helped me get started with the crocheting dropped by some clothing from her grown son for my boys. Every single one of the boys ended up with a nice stack of clothing from her decluttering! Love this!

After lunch, we all sat down in the living room for Morning Time – Dad included! He loves Little House on the Prairie, so he was excited to be a part of things, and he even read from Hurlbut’s Story of the Bible for us this afternoon!

We are back to doing The Playful Pioneers, but to be honest with you, I have not been doing many of the activities. I just haven’t had it in me. We have about 6 weeks left of the curriculum. I’m not sure how I’ll end the curriculum, but if nothing else, it forced me to read the series to my younger kids, and that has been so worth it!

After “Morning Time,”the kids got out the snow clothes tote to get things laid out to go play, BUT…

we discovered the boots had been put away wet and had mildewed. I am so thankful we caught it before they were put away for an entire year – they had only been in there about a month. I’m also glad we store them in the very cold attic.

We were able to wash them and then put them by the fire to dry. So, no playing outside in the snow today.

Ty and I took my mini-poodle, Winston, for a walk in the snow. We tried my sister’s sock trick for keeping his feet from getting matted with snow, but they wouldn’t stay on, even though I tied them like she said. Might be easier to keep on her Schnoodle (Schnauzer-Poodle mix). Not sure what I will do, but for now, we are wrapping his legs in Press’n Seal!

One thing I did discover while we walked the dog was how glad I am the kids didn’t go out in this! It is YUCKY! The snow is so wet and heavy and slushy, it would not have been much fun for them. Hopefully, with the temps sliding, tomorrow will be better.

During the afternoon hours, our 15 year old son did his typing and game time. Every child gets 30 minutes of typing time once a week when they have completed Phonics. When they turn 13, they are allowed to add another 30 minutes onto their time to play games. Our 15 year old now has 2 days a week where he gets to type first and then play games with the remaining time.

Back in 2019, I wrote about Screen Time as homeschoolers, but even taking a quick perusal of that post, I see where some things have changed. But, you might find that post helpful if your family is struggling with Screen Time…

That evening, my husband and our 13 year old son smoked hamburgers with preformed burgers I bought at 10/$10. The 15 year old made waffle fries in the air fryer, and I cut and fried up 8 onions in a skillet and toasted the buns on our indoor griddle. We all ate in the living room by the fireplace – a snowstorm picnic!

It was also Special Night – which seems to be an ever-evolving animal around here lately! It was our 15 year old’s turn to choose the food and activities. We had strawberry and lemon cake with cream cheese frosting and our Christmas Punch for what will probably be the last time until Advent begins again. (how sad!)

Recently, we made Special Night more of a Family Night after some discussion with our kids that made us realize what they really wanted was for ALL of us to play games together and hang out. They wanted to share their food, share their time, and share their fun, so we adjusted! Now, each child gets to choose a food and drink that everyone will share AND they get to choose ALL of the activities we do that night. However, this will be the last week we do it on Monday. We are going to move it to Thursday because Monday just feels too soon after the weekend for me to be prepared for it.

One thing our 15 year old chose to do during Special Night was to FINISH the Jacquie Lawson Advent Calendar. That’s right, we did not open our beloved Advent Calendar app from England Christmas day! We were too busy and then never got around to it after that. So, it was nice to do it as a family on Special Night!

TUESDAY

By the time the snow storm was over, we had about 9″. It was a wet, heavy snow that people started piling up everywhere. It will be a while before it is all melted!

After a breakfast of sourdough snowmen pancakes, the kids headed out to play with the neighbor kids across the street. They go to a private school in the area that cancelled for the next 2 days. We also attend the same church. They have a lovely bit of hill in their side-yard that the kids enjoy sliding down. Our kids took a couple of sleds over and they had a couple of their own, and the kids all took turns sliding down the hill. So nice to have friends in the neighborhood!

For lunch, I ate leftover Creamy Chicken Corn Chowder. The kids made various sandwiches and leftovers.

Once again, we did The Playful Pioneers in the afternoon.

Afterwards, I read in Mark and then read from my current book, Kristin Lavransdatter: The Wife.

I am surprised by how much I’ve enjoyed this series about 14th century Norway. It was recommended to me because of my interest in the Church Year since this book follows a lot of that cycle so poignantly. The story is well told, and the translation is well done.

For dinner, I made Chow Mein with ramen noodles, leftover chicken that didn’t get eaten this last week, bagged coleslaw mix, and a yummy sauce made from sesame oil, coconut aminos, ginger, and garlic! Everyone loved it…except Mercy. Oh, sweet Mercy…always my picky one.

We all commented on how few people are seated around the table now. We went from 12 down to 8 in just a couple of weeks. It feels so weird! First, our son and his wife and little boy moved out, and then our 23 year old went back to college for her final semester. The kitchen and dining room feel so empty without them here. However, I do wonder if I’ll see a difference in the grocery bill. (did I just say that out loud?! Ha!)

WEDNESDAY

For breakfast, we ate leftover pancakes, and then did Morning Time in the morning for a change – finishing On the Banks of Plum Creek which had the perfect compliment to our snowstorm with a snowstorm story of its own!

After lunch, the kids went out back to play in the snow. Ty and I went with them!

The boys wanted to go across the creek, but I made the little girls stay in our backyard. They were sad, so I fixed up a table and playhouse dishes and we created the Snow Bunny Cafe’! That made them very happy, and everyone eventually came to their cafe’ for various snowy treats.

Ty and I ran some late afternoon errands – the bank, the post office to mail some thermals to our son who works outside, the car wash, Aldi, and Walmart for a few more groceries before the Arctic weather settles in. Aldi hadn’t gotten their truck in today due to the weather, so the shelves were quite bare!

We also picked up a hold at the library – Heartwood Hotel: A True Home. I heard about this series on Instagram, and the girls love it!

We had chili and cornbread for supper, and then I worked on my blog taxes while the kids watched shows with Ty.

THURSDAY

Our 23 year old daughter had left one of her overnight oat jars in the refrigerator, so I ate that for breakfast this morning. The kids ate sausage links from Aldi. They gobble these up when I have them in the house!

Once again, Ty and I had errands to run in the morning in between storms, and since we finished On the Banks of Plum Creek yesterday, I decided to take Morning Time off today, and just have the kids do independent school.

We decided to take our 19 year old daughter with us since she often stays home to keep things running smoothly when I’m not here. We wanted to treat her to lunch while we were out getting a new phone battery for Ty’s phone.

Once home, Ty had a friend of his dad’s over for coffee, and I headed to the kitchen to cut up veggies for dinner with friends. Our friends had wanted to share their shrimp étouffée recipe with us – so yummy! We had a lovely evening hanging out with friends and playing with puppies – our dog, Kip, is the sire.

As we headed home, the ice had begun coming down!

FRIDAY

I had to bundle up to take Winston out for his morning walk. The morning high was at midnight, and it was 12°. It will be subzero before the day is out. After I took him out, I crawled back in bed to get warm, and promptly fell asleep.

When everyone woke up, we grabbed a quick breakfast and began Home Blessing.

Our newly turned 15 year old decided to take this Friday as his day off from Home Blessing chores. The birthday kid always gets not only the day of their birthday off of their usual daily chores, but also their weekly chores.

For more about how we celebrate birthdays as a large family, read this post!

He cleans the kitchen and dining room, so I gave the kitchen chores to the 9 year old who already helps him out some and didn’t have as many chores this week due to the snow (she does the porches and the deck). I was going to do the dining room, but my 19 year old daughter beat me to it.

After lunch, the little girls played their Friday game time at 2pm. They always play on Fridays and the boys play on Saturdays.

Toward the end of the afternoon, I began to feel achy and crampy and cold from PMS. I didn’t feel well enough to make dinner, so the kids made chicken wraps and tater tots. They kept some of the chicken back for me because I’d been looking forward to trying it. It’s a lightly breaded chicken from Perdue brands.

I curled up with a heating pad and blankets, but when I finally couldn’t handle the pain, I took 400 mg of ibuprofen and went to my bedroom. I watched a show with my 19 year old and then went to sleep.

I had a rough night because of the cramps, but also because one of our dogs was really whiny. Ty’s hunting dog, Kip, wanted to go out in the subzero temperatures and see if he could find some animal under our shed. He barked and whined and cried for an hour or more.

When I woke up in the morning, I felt much better. Seems like the first couple of days of every other period are difficult these days. For the record, I’m less than a month from my 47th birthday. I guess it’s about time for such things.