Parentheticals

 We Organized Simplicity'd the kitchen this week. It was really nice to move everything around to places that make more sense, now that we've been here for over a year and know better how we use the kitchen. It was a big job - it took two days. And we keep opening the wrong cupboard for certain things. But it's very nice to have it done. Next up we'll have to do the front room. Alison is excited to rearrange and is considering painting it. She would have to pick a color, though. Mike has also been working on adding drip lines to our sprinkler system to water his berry bushes. It's getting hot, so it will be good to have it done. Mike finally went back to the dentist, and they filed down the filling, figuring that the pain was because the filling was too tall and was putting pressure on his jaw. It is feeling somewhat better, but not all the way, so he might have to go back in again. We watched another episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender. The kids whined a lot, so ...

 Getting better from all the sickness last week took most of this week. Alison kept getting mostly better, and then doing too much and getting sick again. The kids are slowly stopping coughing, so hopefully it's about over. Mike's mouth is still hurting from the dentist over a week ago. Alison's mouth hurt for a day or so after and her jaw is still stiff, but Mike has been needing painkillers for at least ten days now. He keeps forgetting to call the dentist and see if there's anything he could do about it. We have been slowly making progress on Organized Simplicity. We did the kids' rooms on Saturday. We gave Timmy and Gideon bigger shelves for their stuff, so hopefully that helps them keep it cleaner. Really, most of the mess in their room is not their own stuff but stuff from other places in the house they've brought it, so it probably won't matter much. But the girls' room got a really good cleaning and organizing and Rea is very hopeful that it will...

 Rea has been asking and asking for us to do Organized Simplicity, and we finally decided that this would be a good week. Our school stuff ended last week, so we decided to just do reading and math in the morning and then let the kids play outside while Alison took everything out of a room. Then after Mike got off work we could move everything back. Monday we did the master bedroom, and it looked amazing! Alison got rid of Montessori stuff ruthlessly, and we ended up with extra space. Tuesday was Alison's birthday, but she woke up with the sore throat that usually heralds a cold for her. She decided not to do any Organized Simplicity and just relax for her birthday. It was lots of fun. We had a barbecue for dinner and the kids made her a throne to sit on while she opened her presents. It was a lovely birthday. Wednesday, Alison woke up with a full-blown cold. She has learned recently that if she stays in bed for two days straight, she doesn't have to be miserably sick for two w...

On Monday Mike went to the Salt Lake Community College surplus computer sale and got Rea a used laptop. It is small and cute and has good stats and battery life. It was only $195, however Rea hates it. She says "Dad! I told you not to get me a computer 'cause I don't want one!" We are hoping that she will start to like it some day because being able to use a computer is a good skill to have. We had lots of medical appointments this week. Alison met with her psychiatrist on Monday and modified her medicine some. The first medicine has prevented any more major depression, but she still feels mildly depressed about half the time, so the psychiatrist is hoping adding this one will help with that. Tuesday morning Alison went to get a chipped filling fixed and get an impression taken for a mouth guard. Apparently she grinds her teeth now. Tuesday afternoon Timmy and Sara went to the dentist. All four kids had dentist appointments last month, but it was the week everyone was...

We haven't published blog posts in a few weeks, even though we started writing them and saved them to drafts. Oops. Here are some highlights: Week 1  (April 23-May1) The kids started new math programs. Sara is doing Saxon Math, which is very highly recommended for practicing math problems over and over again until you can do any possible problem. It is working great for Sara: she can read the lesson, do the problems, then let Mom grade it and talk to Dad after work if she's having any problems. Since she doesn't like Alison's teaching style, this works very well. (We're looking into a language arts program that works the same way for her. Maybe science, too.) The other kids are all using Beast Academy. It uses comic books to teach math concepts and then gives the kids a few very complex problems that take a lot of time and logical thinking to figure out that lets them practice the skill. Rea loves it; she's doing math 2-3 hours a day because it's fun. Timmy ...

Has it been two or three weeks since we wrote? Oops. Well, here's what we remember. Last week we celebrated Easter. For Palm Sunday, we did the donkey race, where the donkey tries to crawl across the house and the kids have to put blankets in front of the donkey fast enough that they never crawl onto bare ground. It's always very hectic and fun. On Monday we played Clean Up Your Own Backyard. We divided into two teams and used stuffed animals. Mom, Sara, Gideon, and Boo were one team, and Dad, Rea, and Timmy were another team. We made a new rule this year that you can't hold more than one thing at a time, which made it more fair. On Tuesday we watched Prince of Egypt, which was fun as always. Mike did homework during it, so he missed most of it. On Wednesday we commemorated the Passover. Alison cut it down severely this year, and it was really nice and didn't take a day and a half, so we will probably do it this way in the future. We had a meal that reminds us of what w...

 Let's see, what happened this week?  Tuesday we did science for school and we learned about weathering and erosion. We made mountains out of play dough and weathered them with water and ice and wind. Rea also did an extra presentation on how ice splits stone apart, putting two grey cushions next to each other and putting a balloon in the crack and blowing it up to simulate water expanding as it freezes. It was great. All of the kids did wonderful science presentations. Wednesday the girls planned an Old Fashioned Party for them and the Plastows. They dressed up in old fashioned clothes, featuring fake mustaches. They played Pin the Tail on the Donkey and lasso the cow swing. At the end, they had root beer floats. They are getting to be very good party planners. Thursday we went to the farm at Thanksgiving Point. Grandma Julie invited us there, and the kids had a lot of fun. The pony ride is the best part of the farm, but it was so crowded that we had to wait for an hour to ge...