, Malachi bumped his head, twice! Sick again, and homeschooling

After I put Malachi to bed, he snuck downstairs to sleep with his sisters.  Austin sent me this picture to let me know he was down there.

Daddy made this little house out of a box for the kids, they love playing in it

Betsy and her friend Alexis made this cake together

Caleb singing at his school program

Malachi is a happy boy 

Caleb and Malachi 

Samuel got a haircut, and his first military ID

This is what Caleb chose to wear to western day

Gideon kept pushing himself further and further off the bed during his nap

Gideon was a big boy sitting in the Dr. chair waiting to get his ears looked at, for his follow up appointment from surgery.  They looked great

Malachi is quietly playing, feeling a little tired after hitting his head really hard on the pews at PWOC

Here is a close up of Gideon's poor little head where he bumped it twice

This is Gideon's little chair for morning devotional.  He is happy to be one of the big kids and sitting in his own chair

He loves it when it is his turn to "read" the scriptures

Malachi and Gideon loved playing in a pile of packing paper

Malachi thought Gideon was cold, so he put about 5 scarves on him

Then he thought it looked cool and put them on himself

Austin helping me babysit a two year old all weekend

We love having a warm sunny day!

Gidoen loves it when Joseph lays down on the floor and he can attack him!

Then Joseph gets him back!

So this was a particularly busy several weeks, due to the fact that I started homeschooling Joseph.  It is through k12, so it is an online school, but it requires a lot of my time to keep Joseph organized and doing what he is supposed to do.  We have been figuring it out together, and have learned much about how this is going to work.  Joseph has been doing well with doing what he is supposed to be doing, and listening pretty well to me.  The first two days were a little rough, but by the end of the week it was much better, I think this will work well for him.  I also started teaching 5 new piano students during the day, who are either home schooled or adults.  So now I teach 9 students, plus Joseph, Betsy, and Samuel.  At PWOC on Tuesday morning, Malachi thought it was funny to run away from me when it was time to take him to his class.  He was running away and looking behind him to see if I was going to chase him, and run right into a pew.  He hit his forehead pretty hard, and got a nice goose egg on his head from it.  I was able to get ice from the kitchen and put it on his swollen head, and then sent him off to class, once he felt better. Then later that night while I was cooking dinner, he and Caleb were chasing each other around the kitchen and Malachi slipped and ran right into the edge of the wall, hitting the exact same spot.  He was down for the count with this one, and I just held him until he was able to calm down and then ice it again, and then he fell asleep.  I believe he had a slight concussion, because his eyes weren't dilating properly, and the one time he tried to get up and walk he about fell over.  He slept well through the night, and I checked on him when I was up with Gideon.   Travis had his vasectomy, and it went well, and Travis was able to rest over the weekend, before leaving to go out in the field.  I had a great time at PWOC this last Tuesday, because I invited a friend who I was helping to study the scriptures, and she felt the spirit really strong, and said that I answered many of her prayers.  It felt really good, to be able to help someone else.  Tuesday night, Malachi snuck up behind Samuel and dumped water over his head.  Samuel freaked out, and slammed Malachi to the ground, hurting his head again.  Then Wednesday was a crazy day full of appointments and dragging kids to and from places all day.  We ended up eating dinner going through the drive thru at Freddy's, because we didn't have time to go home for dinner.  We went to the church for cub scouts and YM/YW activities, and it was very stressful and tiring.  There were a lot of older kids in the gym playing with balls, so I ended up needing to take Caleb, Malachi, and Gideon into the halls, because they kept getting hurt.   It was hard to keep track of all of the kids, and another man there made some hurtful comments towards me, that upset me, but I'm all good now.  We also ended up losing Malachi for a few minutes.  I was changing Gideon's diaper in the bathroom and the kids were supposed to be getting in the van, but Malachi lost whoever he was following and ended up wandering around the outside of the church crying barefoot and no jacket in the freezing cold.  Thankfully when I came out and realized he was missing, could faintly here his crying, and then another family driving away, saw him and picked him up and brought him back to me.  
The last two weeks Travis has been out in the field, with no cell phone.  That has been the hardest part about him being gone.  I miss talking to my husband, even when he is deployed we can talk to him almost every day.  Anyway Caleb and Samuel have been having a lot of struggles at school.  There have been behavior problems, and Samuel is not learning in his classroom, it is too chaotic.  So after a lot of praying and talking to different people, I made the decision to pull Samuel and Caleb out of school and home school them.  They are using the k12 curriculum, but it is too late in the year to get them into the school, so I am their teacher.  It has been a humongous undertaking and I was going a little crazy.  The week I was trying to decide for sure what to do, we all got sick with bad cold virus, and I was getting very little sleep, carrying a baby around all day, and getting nothing done.  I was supposed to be getting the house ready and organized for homeschooling, but that didn't happen. Then early Saturday morning I got a call from a friend of my in our branch, that she was at the hospital giving birth to her baby, and she needed me to pick up her two year old.  So Austin, Gideon and I rushed to the hospital and picked up a screaming 2 year old from his Mommy who was just starting to push, luckily her husband arrived just before we did, and was there to help her.  Anyway we watched the 2 year old all weekend, and took him to church with us, as well as watched another 2 year old during sacrament meeting while his mom played the organ.  So there I was with 8 children (Joseph stayed home sick) with 5 of them under the age of 5.  So Austin had the two 2 year olds on either side of her.  Betsy had Caleb and Malachi on either side of her, and I had Gideon and Samuel on either side of me, our row was very busy, but we made it!  So needless to say, I was not prepared to start homeschool on Monday morning.  It did not go well.   Thankfully my wonderful Dad decided to fly out and come help me get things organized for a few days.  He has been here since Tuesday evening  and will leave tomorrow morning.  I am so grateful that he came, he has been able to help watch the kids so that I can get things organized.  I still feel overwhelmed with this homeschooling endeavor, it is so much WORK!  But, I'm not passed my breaking point anymore.  Here's to hoping this coming week will go much better.  Saturday after chores were done we got to go to Manhattan and play at the park (it was 70 degrees outside) and get some shoe shopping done and go out to dinner.  My dad took the boys to Chik-Fil-A while the girls and I got to go across the street at the Olive Garden.  We loved having a nice dinner to ourselves.  My poor Dad, had to deal with the craziness of a busy restaurant and four little boys (Joseph stayed home), but he pulled it off!  Thank you Dad!