Parentheticals

This week was not as exciting as last week (phew!), but we had fun. We switched over to our summer schedule this week, since our scheduled school-ish things (nature group and weekly learning logs) ended last week.  This year, summer schedule involves listening to a early-elementary-school-level audiobook over breakfast (nature stories, stories from history, things like that), then getting ready for the day, then half an hour of review (math, reading, handwriting) before they head out to play. They also need to take a siesta in the hot part of the afternoon if they want to stay up in the evening when it's nice - not that it's hot yet, but we're starting the transition now, because it's always a grumpy week or two until we all adjust. We're listening to less-exciting upper elementary/middle school level audiobook over naps, in hopes that it won't keep people awake. The kids have gotten to play with their cousins a lot, and they will get to do more now that public ...

 We didn't actually write about our family Salt Con last week! We had too much fun, I guess :). So last Thursday we woke up and packed up the car. The kids were so eager to go, they pushed and prodded us out the door - they were in the car buckled up half an hour before we were ready to leave, which was half an hour before we supposed to leave. We were aiming to get to Crystal Hot Springs near Brigham City at noon, when they open, but we ended up getting there at 11:30. We went to a nearby park to eat a picnic lunch, and then we went back to the hot springs. They were beautiful rock pool with different temperatures of water. We deliberately picked one of the least-busy days and times, and there were plenty of people but not so many that we couldn't stay socially distanced. Mike and Alison enjoyed soaking in the hot water; the kids went back and forth between soaking and playing in the traditional swimming pool. Even Elizabeth ended up liking the water by the end! We had planned...

What an exciting week! To kick it off, we were at Dimple Dell and discussing how, if we have to move to get a second bathroom, a house near Dimple Dell would be nice. So while the baby was nursing and everyone else was playing, Alison looked at houses on her phone. And she totally found her dream house! It has a xeriscaped front yard, mature fruit trees and grapes in the solidly fenced backyard, beautiful huge windows in the living room, a large kitchen/dining room, a second living room, three bedrooms, bathrooms, and a half-aboveground (so natural light) basement. We drove by it and everyone was excited; even Rea, who has flatly refused to move, said that she would move there. As soon as we got home, we contacted the realtor, only to find that it was already under contract. That was really disappointing! But after a day, we started thinking about using the house as inspiration to add on to our house. We've started to draw up plans to make a huge lighted front room with a basement ...

This week Mike's started to create a list of all of the public places that we forage for food, and another list of parks and places that we want to try to forage for food. We are going to visit a few parks a week and see what new things we find. We have already found a new source of grapes and a patch of raspberry bushes. We are excited to see what we find next. This week Mike also submitted a game to a contest. It is an 18 card legacy game. Here's hoping that it does well. We went to Amy and Dave's house for the girls to get haircuts and everyone to watch Frozen 2. The kids had a great time, until Rea was jumping down the stairs and banged her rib. She was in a lot of pain, but it's been steadily getting better, so we're no longer worried. A few days after the rib incident, Rea decided to climb a tree and scratched her leg really badly. Poor Rea! What a week! Alison got a history curriculum that includes suggested Minecraft builds. Sara and Timmy were so eager to l...

For Rea's date night we bought mint ice cream, and had mint ice cream and watched an episode of my little ponies. Since then, we have been eating mint ice cream every so often, because - hey! mint ice cream. Sara read a book for the first time this week, so we had a goal day party for her. She wanted brownies, so Alison made us a batch, and then we played games together. and ate mint ice cream. On Wednesday Mike finished his dragon game up and entered it into the game competition. He hasn't heard anything back yet, but even if he doesn't win, it was a fun contest. The outdoor preschool is going well. Alison decided to hold it on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays: there is a ward playgroup that meets on Wednesdays, and on Fridays they already have a preschool group. They had a different family join every day this week (which the kids really enjoyed). They managed to stay outside for about 5 hours each day without the kids whining (which was the goal). The kids had a l...