- I was scrambling around this morning since I have been making muffins on Fridays for breakfast. This morning though I was a bit later than usual since I did sleep in. On my behalf though, I was still the first one awake. I did have a few cans of expired cinnamon rolls that I yanked out of the fridge and shoved in the oven before waking up the crew.
- They killed hunger even though I didn't cook them long enough. I had baked them an extra 5 minutes yet they still didn't seem to finish, and we definitely needed to get the day started.
- I thought this day might be a little easier since Campbell, Keaton and Graham had very little school work. They still all had to work with me which takes some time. Campbell works with me the longest, and we have 6 things to do together (multiplication tables, history, reading, grammar, spelling and another grammar).
- I have also let my guard down on Whitman. That boy has learned to just disappear during the school day. It was 11:30 today, and he still had his phonics to do. That is his hardest thing so his bit sisters decided to help him. I am not sure how much help they gave him because I think they pretty much did it for him.
- Anderson was the only one still working after lunch. We all read, did some chores, finished another Jr. Ranger book and all 3 big kids finished their East homework for the week. I headed up to the treadmill while the Campbell and Whitman were working on a fort.
- Robby made the kids supper while I finished up. Then we dropped the boys off at basketball, and Whitman off at Grannymom's house for the night. Robby and I went out to eat by ourselves! On the way home, we picked up Krispy Kreme doughnuts for a snack tonight.
- When basketball was over, Cash came home with us to spend the night and we devoured a box of doughnuts! The kids all zoned out this evening on their devices while Reagan worked on making a sign. She has grand plans to sell it so hopefully that works out!
- Thursday morning and things went well. Laundry had been done the night before. I walked on the treadmill and emptied dishes before Graham had asked me a single question about his school work. He was downstairs right at 7 already working on his school work.
- I still had to work hard to wake everyone up this morning. I have found that if I stay upstairs talking to someone about some upcoming event or something exciting, then the others will wake up a bit easier because they are curious as to what we are talking about.
- Everyone ate their breakfast, and then we started on our work together and daily school work. I seemed to be scrambling most of the day to catch up and to urge people to work on. Now, Keaton did finish today's work and tomorrow's as well. Campbell was still doing work today at 4, but she ended up doing most of her work for tomorrow too. I did try to explain that maybe next time she should finish one day's work before starting on the next day's work!
- Around lunch, I headed off to get my hair cut. Most everyone was done with their school, and by the time that I made it back home everyone was almost done with school. The big 3 still have quite a bit of work to do on their EAST stuff. They hopefully can finish tomorrow.
- I was home a bit and soon headed out again to meet the homeschool moms for some year long planning. We did talk about making a newspaper this next year which I am pretty excited about.
- While I was gone, Robby made everyone supper. They even completed the laundry and did the dishes. Tomorrow morning should go splendid with all of my first chores already finished.
- I arrived home just as everyone was heading to bed. I kissed the crew goodnight and then had a bit of time for a show and some reading and very possibly some cookie dough.
- When I went up the stairs towards the treadmill, I heard Campbell (I thought-though it was actually Reagan) coughing. I think that those girls were already awake because when I went to start waking everyone up, the girls' ipads were already gone. They were all in the bedroom, dressed and ready to head to the first day of CBS. I guess they were a wee bit excited!
- I do believe that everyone had a good day at CBS. Reagan, Graham, Campbell and Keaton are all in the same classes. There are lots of new people so they will have many new friends. Anderson is now in the Jr. CBS program and would be with Reagan's class, but they have divided it into boys and girls. Whitman is now in Keaton's class with her and will be in that room for the next two years.
- I have the same leader that I have had before. This is our 6th year of CBS. I know two people in my class, and I am really excited about our study of Genesis. I think it will be very interesting.
- Afterwards, we met our crew at the park. The kids enjoyed playing for a good while until we headed home. It was pleasant but was still a bit warm outside.
- Reagan went home with Kennedy for the afternoon, and I made the rest of the kids come home and do some work. The boys both did some of their EAST stuff. Everyone did two things of school. Bless Campbell last week she multiplied two double digit numbers and did it very well. This week she is multiplying a triple digit number with a double digit number, and it is not easy at all for her!
- I also did some reading with everyone and even had a few minutes to sit down before loading up for church tonight. The kids all have lots of fun in their classes. Keaton and Campbell are the only ones who have to say verses. They both worked and worked on their different verses this week. Keaton could also earn bonus bucks by saying the fruits of the spirit which she knew. Now, Campbell could earn bucks by saying the 12 tribes of Israel. We put them to song and practiced, but I didn't think there was any way that she could say them tonight. Sure enough she did. In case you are wondering some of them are - Judah, Benjamin, Isachar, Dan, Gad, Nepthali, and a few other guys!
- Once we all made it home, the kids had showers and then a bit of ice cream before bed. It was a pretty busy but pretty good day.
- You would not expect the first day of school after a holiday to go well, but surprisingly it did go very well today. I was shocked, to say the list, when Anderson told me before lunch that he was finished with school. His school today was just the perfect easy day-no writing in writing, easy math, and grammar with me. He was pretty pleased with himself, and I was as well.
- Campbell was the last one to finish her school today. I am not too sure what all she did that slowed her down, but she didn't mind having to finish a bit of stuff after lunch. I am actually surprised that Keaton wasn't the last one-for some reason, I think that everyone thought today was the day that they had to read with her. So she read with at least 3 of the big kids while trying to do her work.
- After lunch, we finished some chores and then did some more reading. By the end of all of our daily reading-15 minutes at breakfast, an hour in the morning, 15 minutes at lunch and then 30 more minutes in the afternoon-my voice starts getting a bit hoarse!
- Once we finished that, everyone did their Jr. Ranger books. Then it was time for me to read some with the little 3. We are reading Pippi Longstocking. Afterwards, I read to Whitman, and he did some reading. He was reading to me today, and Keaton walked by and said, "I didn't know that he could read a book." Barely, but he can!
- Much of the afternoon was spent with Reagan, Anderson and Graham working on their stuff for their library class. Since this is their first time to do this, it is a bit difficult trying to figure things out. I hope that it becomes easier, but they still have quite a few assignments to finish this week.
- After the treadmill, I played a game with the little 3. Soon Robby was home. Even though we had eaten leftovers and sandwiches for lunch, I pulled out more leftovers for supper. I did make some BBQ chicken boneless wings to go with the meal. Unfortunately, I didn't buy the boneless wings and they were real wings! Urgh! That was fine because I was able to pull off the meat, but I still have another bag of those!
- Once supper was over, we had some downtime until we watched a Bates. Robby made two batches of popcorn though we added butter and it wasn't that great. Hopefully, we will get it all figured out. We do know how to make some yummy kettle corn, but the kids don't like that as well. Reagan wants to have a popcorn bar for her party so we will have to figure it out soon.
- No one was really quick to stir this morning. We heard the kids before we saw them. Whitman did come into our room sometime during the morning hours holding a gigantic cup of milk. He wanted me to put the lid on it. It was absolutely huge-so huge that I am not really sure where they found the cup or if it is even ours.
- I had three mounds of huge laundry in the floor of our bedroom this morning, so my first stop was to work on them. It didn't take too incredibly long but gracious me, laundry never seems to end. Right now, we have one load in the dryer, and two loads in the washers, plus there is already enough wet towels to do another load.
- Robby and I both did our treadmill time this morning. When that was over, it was allowance passing out time. Since all of this was new, everyone counted their current cash. Then they put some of that in their long term savings. Each of these steps were carefully recorded on their ledgers.
- Then the excitement began-they received their first allowance. Robby already realized but this allowance passing out might just break us! Once the allowance was passed out, everyone had to put their tithe money in an envelope, put their savings in that envelope and carefully record all of that. It was pretty tedious work for some of the kids.
- Afterwards, we ate our lunch and then had a bit of downtime before the pool. Then we loaded up for our 49th visit to the pool this summer. Yes, I have kept very meticulous records, and in case you are wondering, that means that we paid 7.18 each visit and 2.93 an hour.
- We actually stayed for 5 hours today. Robby did run and get supper-Chinese. This was the best pool supper yet. The kids were delighted with Chinese and devoured the lo mien noodles. At the final adult swim, they did sell everything for a quarter so that was also very exciting to everyone. Most everyone came away with a drink and a bag of chips.
- We made it home about 7:30. The kids had their showers, and then everyone helped clean up the house for a few minutes. That really helped get us ahead on our weekly chore lists. Then everyone had a few minutes to play on their ipads before bedtime.
- Sunday morning and everyone was dressed and ready in time for us to leave a bit earlier than usual. I had to be there early because I had nursery duty with the babies during big church.
- We tried to get gas on the way, but Robby couldn't get his credit cards to work. After trying two pumps, he finally said that he would just have to get it after church.
- We just had two babies in my room so it wasn't too bad. Robby said that all of the kiddos were good during church. He did say that Whitman was a bit squirmy and even agreed to an afternoon nap. Though that never happened.
- After church, we headed to Grannymom's house for lunch. The girls played a game while Whitman worked diligently on some dominoes. After awhile, we left and headed to the gas station.
- The car said "0 miles to Empty" for at least 2 miles on our way to Kroger. We probably did come really close to pushing that car, but thankfully we didn't have to. Robby had planned on dropping me off at the door so I could grab a few things while he pumped gas, but instead he just drove right on to the gas pumps!
- This afternoon was full of a nap for Robby and me. The kids ate, ipad-ed and had a big time. Campbell and Keaton are on a rainbow loom kick and are making bracelets galore right now. That is fine because it is something to do that isn't just screens.
- Around 5, we loaded up and headed to the pool for our 48th visit of the season. The Heltz and Crafts were all there. This was great for the girls because they all had buddies, but my big boys didn't have buddies. They still managed fine. We even had pizza for supper-Robby bought plenty of BBQ pizza this time so everyone was happy!
- At one point Candice was holding Traci's baby at the pool, when Anderson asked me if he could hold the baby. He was dry, so I put the baby in his lap. After holding him for a while, Anderson leaned over to me and whispered, "I thought it would be more fun that it is." I guess holding the baby wasn't all that he thought it would be! He did later ask if we could take the baby home with us.
- We stayed until the pool closed and once home, everyone had showers. Since tomorrow is not a school day, we did let everyone stay up a little bit later than usual. They were all quiet which usually means, the quieter you are, the longer you get to stay up.
- What was not quiet tonight was our alarm. The kids were still up, Robby was laying in the bed reading and I was on the computer when our house alarm started going nuts. We both bolted out of bed-I did a door/window/kid check while Robby worked on silencing the alarm. I made my loop back to the bedroom about the time, he saw that it was a water alarm.
- So he went to the washing machine downstairs and I headed upstairs to check that washing machine and water heater. All was well on my end, and Robby just had a bit of dampness on his check. He did discover that his dryer hose had come loose, so we fixed it up and finally it was quiet in the Dennie house.
- We all slept pretty well last night. At one time, Robby had to go and stir Keaton because she must have been having a dream. She was talking in her sleep. It wasn't too much longer when she walked over to me and slept the rest of the night between Robby and me.
- The big boys had slept in Zach's room, and pretty early this morning Anderson came up to grab his ipad. We could hear breakfast being made downstairs, but we quietly stayed upstairs until the dinner bell was rang. Anderson did manage to tell us twice that breakfast smelled "absolutely delicious."
- It was indeed absolutely delicious. Les and Shelley had made eggs, sausage and biscuits for breakfast. Afterwards, Campbell, Reagan and I played a board game. It was a bit too difficult for us, so soon everyone was putting on their bathing suits.
- Of course Campbell and Whitman were the first ones to jump into the pool. Everyone played, and Whitman even had a bit of chance to work on his swimming with Reagan. She loves taking off his life jacket and does well watching him.
- The boys swam some but also ended up playing football in the back yard some. The little 3 swam until almost noon. Then it was time to start cleaning up and loading up to head home. We ate a bite of lunch right before leaving to come home.
- On the way home, the kids were fairly quiet. They spent most of their time on their ipads. We did stop at McDonalds on the way home for a bathroom stop and most importantly for some ice cream. Then for the rest of the ride, we listened to the Hog game.
- We dropped off Grannymom and Grandpa and then rushed home to see the end of the game. Well, before anyone was able to watch the game, everyone worked hard on cleaning out the car and putting away all of our stuff. Eight people going anywhere for any amount of time, even less than 24 hours, still amounts to a lot of stuff.
- We cheered on the Hogs and took quite a bit of time this evening relaxing. Robby grilled hamburgers for our supper. Afterwards, Keaton, Campbell, Robby and I took a short walk around the block.
- Then it was home for some showers and a brief time before bed. The weekend has already flown by but thankfully, we have Monday to celebrate a little bit longer!
