At Home

Things are still going well. The house is still really clean and we're hoping and I'm working so that it will keep staying that way! 🤞 Parent and toddler laundry is 100% done, the rest of the kids do their own and it usually stays in the "clean clothes in a basket" stage for a few days. We usually get to bed by 10:30, "we" being Corey and I, the kids all seem to take forever to finish everything and finally quiet down, but that's ok, they are still going to bed at a better time than we were just 6 months ago. The dishes are 100% done. I load the dishwasher and wash big pots and pans every night after dinner, put them away in the morning while I make oatmeal, and then I wash morning dishes by hand so the sink it clean and clear. I do think a big part of why things are clean is that I stay home all day almost everyday. I feel like I'm already full term preg and thus don't have a lot of gung-ho to leave the house or do stuff with the little boys. So we've been staying home. Daniel likes to "color" on the computer. He's in training to be a graphic artist. Peter and I reading a cars book yesterday - 

And a dinosaur book today. 

He pointed to the title of the book which said "Dinosaurs" and as he ran his finger across the word, he said "Scary... Dinosaurs." He likes dinosaurs, cars, Spiderman, and Batman. Yes, from the pictures above, you can see that he wore his Spider-man shirt for a full 48 hours. I did get him to take it off and I washed it and then he put it right back on after it was dry. What can we say? His name is Peter and he likes Spider-man. 

Kids are doing well at practicing their music. Sophi and Natalie are on a 15 day streak for practicing their violin. On Sunday's we sight read a few simplified hymns and all three of us are doing better and getting quicker at reading the notes. Peter joined us for violin on Saturday night - holding the violin upside down. That's a screen shot from a video Corey took and sent to our missionaries.

We thought it was super cute and funny. That is the violin that is missing a peg and string because of when the scroll broke off after P threw it down the stairs a year ago (oops).

We ask Abi's flute teacher for letter grade after each lesson, and it only took a few Bs for Abi to learn what the teacher wanted and now she consistently gets As. Her teacher is on maternity leave for 2 months and Abi has a new teacher for a bit. We only recently asked Lily's clarinet teacher, and after two B-'s, Lily got her first A today, so Corey gave her back her "Wings of Fire" books, which we had to take away to help her focus on music a little more. They are doing well. So that's all been fun and yeah, things are good all around. Last week we studied Noah and the Flood for Come Follow Me, and I do feel like the gospel is our modern day ark and it keeps us safe and above the flood of chaos in the world around us. I'm grateful for the Lord's blessings and protection.