Family fun pictures include a ping pong tournament (which Micah won), LEGO masters of a water park, Ethan mowing the lawn barefoot (as always), cutting paper into shreds while Mikey reads to us, biking to the tennis courts, spying on birds in our neighbors’ yard (yikes!), Mikey and Ethan going head to head in the countries game on the iPad (Mike won by 1, I believe – E has been playing this game since he was TINY *but hasn’t done so in years* and has a fabulous memory), and playing LEGO.
Most days I get out for at least one walk and it’s often done solo. I took a few pictures over the past two weeks because it’s just been so beautiful!
Homeschool pictures from around the house:
And CC in the backyard pics (E is helping me teach the books of the Bible to everyone during opening assembly):
Also, we sent in videos for our church to use on Sunday and I accidentally took pictures a few times while trying to make the videos and they make me smile:
I’ll post some pictures from the final weeks in September and the first week or so of October in this post.
Our backyard community for CC continues to go well. The days usually start off fairly chilly, but we end feeling plenty warm by the end of the day. We’ve been meeting on Tuesdays at 8 am, but I suspect we will push it back to 9 am as the weather turns. =) The first day of fall our tutor brought in pumpkins for everyone and we did our review work by striking various poses while holding the pumpkins. Presentations have varied from talking about our homemade library or pictures we’ve drawn, to paragraphs about Scott Joplin and best places to take pictures. We are very thankful for this community!
Here are some pics from school, including Ethan’s virtual piano lessons, reading and playing in the treehouse, tracing the states while learning the capitals, Micah finishing another level in his reading program, and a LEGO rendering of our latest history sentence about the Louisiana Purchase and others about the signing of the Declaration of Independence:
We’ve gone on walks to the Cherry Creek Reservoir a couple of times in the last few weeks. One of the times we saw a Golden Eagle, which was incredibly exciting for our crew! Ethan brings his camera and occasionally even captures pictures of the fam!
We’re in full fall celebration mode around here. No heat or AC on for over a month – a ridiculous game I like to play during this season. It means bundling up in the mornings when it’s in the low 60s or high 50s in the house, but then enjoying the warmer afternoons. We’ve also been enjoying pumpkin and fall-themed foods and scents. Our friends even brought by some decorations they had found on a walk. And I’m including a picture of my favorite view from the park up the street.
Other fun happenings include two back-to-back Packer picnics (I found Packers jerseys for each boy on thredup – can you imagine my excitement?!):
And some pictures from around the house, including LEGO builds, coin trading via Zoom and amongst brothers, Micah’s dentist appt, Ethan’s darling pic of Micah biking, boys enjoying grandma reading Farmer Boy to us over Zoom (while building LEGO), the arrival of our new books, and shots of the boys enjoying their early Christmas present from Uncle David (thank you!!):
It’s a beautiful season and we are making the most of it!
Pictures from homeschooling – a visual representation of the differences between E and M being asked to write the same science question and answer; our math books were backordered (we finally got Ethan’s, but Micah’s is still not here) so I’ve been doing random workbooks for Math; Ethan is editing a Bible verse, then drawing a picture for our Essentials vocabulary game, and then working on a report for piano; Micah has started using the iPad for fun math games while waiting for his math book to arrive; and Micah watches art classes on YouTube with me while Daddio teaches Ethan something solo (E does typing when Micah has his lesson with Dad).
Pictures from our CC community day in the backyard – Ethan did a presentation on cold showers; Micah talked about the Rush Revere book we finished (thanks, Grandpa Russ!); I taught Fine Arts (drawing upside down); and Ethan made a grumpy face at me when he missed his shot from the review game:
Pictures from fun at home – Mike mowing the lawn in a mask because of all the smoke in the air; Micah looking a picture while listening to Grandma reading; the boys taking ice baths; playing ping pong on Sunday afternoons after church (photo credit goes to Ethan for that darling one of Micah); boys enjoying some special treats from friends and family who had heard we were under the weather; birding in the chilly mornings; working on books for our in-home library; and finally the two pictures of Mike and I are from the book reading event at our library (I read my book, “Alvin the Brave” in a British accent, much to the amusement of the fam):
This past weekend we went for a hike in Golden and then spent some time in the creek downtown. It was lovely!
I walk each morning and occasionally take pictures of the beautiful sites. =)
The weekend/week of Labor Day brought about sickness and snow, both unexpected but relatively short-lived. Ethan was very tired, had a sore throat and a slight fever all weekend. By Monday, Micah had a fever and sore throat. I share our little story here only because I believe in giving glory and praise where it is due. As you’ve probably gathered from our lack of trips, visitors, or play dates, we’ve been living very close to home and keeping our own exposure and our potential spreading to a minimum. Obviously this sickness threw us for a bit of a loop. It didn’t ruffle us much until Micah’s fever spiked to 102.7 before bed on Monday night. We opted to have him sleep in bed by me and have Mike downstairs in the guest bedroom. I woke a little after 10 (don’t judge – I went to sleep with Micah at 8! =D) with Micah crying in pain and burning up. Here’s where I made my mistake – I jumped out of bed to check his temperature (something I can’t do with how quickly my blood pressure drops when I do so) and found that it had gotten up to 104.3. Knowing only that this was too high, I started praying and taking off blankets and trying to cool him down. Then I ran downstairs to get Mike and ran back upstairs to be with Micah. At this point, my body had had enough excitement and I could feel a faint coming on. Thankfully Mike caught me before I hit my head, but I did, indeed, pass out fully. By the time I came back to and was done with the initial throwing up, Mike was able to check Micah’s temperature again and found it had dropped back down to 101 something. Praise the Lord! I couldn’t have messed up that first reading as we’ve got a forehead thermometer, so I can only assume the Lord healed Micah swiftly!
Micah and I kept mumbling back and forth to each other that we were both fine and Mikey took watchful care over both of us. Sadly, after I faint I am basically useless for the next two days and have to stay lying down in bed. Our sweet boys took great care of me, getting me drinks of water, taking pictures of our first snow, and calling to check in on whether I needed anything.
Micah hates this story and was pretty traumatized again by my fainting, but we are trying to tell the story from the perspective of the Lord’s great care for us.
We ended up getting the boys tested for Covid-19 (even though we knew it was a long-shot) in an effort to protect anyone with whom we might come into contact over the next week or two. They handled the test bravely and we were grateful to find that it was NOT Covid. Originally we had wondered whether having it would give us more freedom or flexibility, but we’ve since thought about the potential long-term effects on their lungs and heart from having had it, and are thankful that we don’t have those with which to contend.
Anyway, we are grateful for health and strength (boys and I are back to full strength). We are grateful that the Lord is consistently with us. We are grateful that we are still able to walk in love for our neighbors by hanging close to home. This is a difficult season. We’re trying to choose thankfulness and kindness every day.
Also, snow in September. What fun! We had a massive temp swing from 91 to 26 in one day!
I’ll start with some pics from our second week of CC outside. Micah’s presentation was on his scooter and scooter tricks. Ethan’s was on various places he enjoys going birding. And then in Essentials, Micah and I read his first paper this week, which was a big milestone.
Here are some pics from around the house doing school, including writing outside in the beautiful weather, teaching the Timeline to Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Sal, working on their Essentials papers, LEGO history sentence of signing the Mayflower Compact:
The boys did some birding in the park nearby and then spent some time snuggled up while editing their pictures. Later during the week we drove up to Loveland to check out a birding hotspot there that our dear friends told us about. It was awesome!
