Adventures in Dennieland...: 03/01/2020

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More reading today, more school work, more talk of things being closed this summer. I suggested that we just do school throughout the summer and move the kids up a grade. That would mean that I would also be finished a year early-2029 instead of 2030!
For some reason I was super late working with the kids today. We started on time, well our new "on time," but I was still struggling to keep up. I normally have about 25 minutes per kid to check work/etc. Some folks take longer while others don't take that long-I just have to check Reagan's work, but have to do quite a bit of Whitman. I still managed to catch up and finished just about 12:15, but I was a bit stressed for a few minutes.
Nonna and Pops stopped by for a few minutes. They brought a bag of Oreos along with a bottle of coke. The coke came in handy since we were completely out and used that one for supper. And the Oreos became the after lunch and afternoon snacks.
Right after lunch, I helped the girls with their drawers. They are just about finished with their clothes switcheroo-we just have to go through their hanging clothes. Then I believe that it will be time to buy the paint and paint their room. I am not looking forward to painting, but they sure are!
I have almost finished our latest puzzle. It is 1000 pieces and I think that the kids have only put in about 8 pieces. Maybe tomorrow they will help me finish it up. I have also spent some extra time working on my school room closet. I have realized that if I just do a tiny section a day, then it is quickly accomplished without me losing my mind!
We ate our lunches and then did some more reading. I did end up playing a game of basketball with Campbell, Keaton and Graham. And Anderson and I worked on his Legos. I believe that we just have about 8 more Star Wars Lego sets to rebuild and then will have rebuilt all of the Star Wars. Robby said that we could open a museum...that no one could come too.
For supper tonight, Campbell and Keaton made a breakfast casserole. Campbell also thought about cornbread and stuck a pan of cornbread in the oven. It was all decent-the casserole wasn't my favorite, but it killed hunger.
After supper, Reagan and Anderson cleaned the kitchen-we have started having 2 kiddos clean each night. Then most everyone ran to the trampoline for a little bit. Afterwards, there was lots of vegging out...I do have a girl zoom phone call late the evening so I best go and get myself ready for that!

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After getting up this morning, I went to wake up all of the kids. Whitman was once again in Graham's bed snoozing away. Anderson and Reagan were also asleep, but everyone else was awake and working on school. Campbell and Keaton had mostly finished the night before so they were lacking in things to do during the day.
We did our together work before starting on everyone's else work. Graham was the first to work with me. Then I moved on through the line not finishing until nearly noon with Whitman. Earlier this year, he was struggling with math. Now, he is adding big numbers like 104 and 253.
I spent some time on the new puzzle today-maybe a bit too much time. I was able to go through some bins with Keaton and organize the boys' closet. I should have had them help since I will make the girls help when I do theirs. However, the boys don't care at all what I keep or throw away or what I put where so I just did it quickly myself. I also worked on my school room closet-maybe I will accomplish one whole task by the end of the week and not just pieces of different tasks.
We did watch the next episode of a local meteorologist's weather school. It was interesting, but it did mean that we didn't read history. Eeek! We have about half the book left! But it looks like we will have plenty of time to read it in the upcoming weeks or even months!
I did do something that I never thought I would have to do-deliver toilet paper to a friend. She was done to one roll and with two little bittys she doesn't have time to traipse all over town looking for some. So Reagan drove some of the way and I drove the rest to drop it off.
Later in the afternoon we left again to take Keaton's little friend her birthday gift. She was happy to see Keaton, and they gave each other an air hug! Then we picked up our supper at ChickFilA on the way home.
My favorite part of the day today was during supper. Robby and Whitman were the last ones in the kitchen. Robby was asking what he would like to do when he grew up. After debating between an artist and a singer, Whitman then thought that he might like to do "nothing" when he grows up. He then immediately looked at Robby and continued with, "like Dad's, what type of job do you have?" I guess he thinks that Robby does nothing during the day.
The evening was pretty relaxing. I did play a few rounds of pick up sticks with some folks. Then Keaton held the tv remote for most of the evening and watched a few decorating shows before bedtime.

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Sunday morning here and just like usual we were scurrying around trying to get ourselves to church on time. Thankfully, we just had to get everyone to the living room. I did have my shower and was able to throw the laundry out of the dryer so I could fold and worship.
Church was good this morning. Then afterwards, our adult Sunday school class had their lesson on the computer. That was fun getting to see their faces. We usually just see 1st graders at church so seeing adults is a nice change.
Then we went to Grannymom's house for lunch. She had lunch fixed for us and Dana and her crew. We also did some celebrating for Whitman's 7th birthday. He is getting ready to celebrate pretty big this week!
He was even able to open a few presents-once was more pieces to his marble track so he was thrilled about that. Plus a set of crocs to wear like all of his brothers and sisters along with some cash to spend later.
We didn't stay too long at all and afterwards Robby ran into the grocery store to grab a few things. The main necessity was Tums! We were out-ha! I think that we have been eating too many peanut butter M&Ms around here. I plan to get on the treadmill tomorrow so that will help too. (And you know how my "planning" so often goes-it doesn't get done!)
We came home to start our sermon watching. Yes, it is Sunday so of course I did have a nap. I am not sure how many sermons that I missed while snoozing, but I do think that Robby watched at least 4 today. First Baptist Orlando and Tony Evans were both tied for the best ones today. They did both preach about worry so that might possibly by why they were both my favorites.
All of the kids did spend most of the afternoon/evening outside playing with the neighbors. It is hard to know what to do-go see people, go to the store, play with the neighbors. We certainly don't want to get anyone sick but certainly don't want to live in fear at all.
This evening we all had left overs for supper. Then it was time for our life group to get together. We enjoyed seeing everyone and feel like we can start our week with our people tanks full!

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Robby and I stayed up incredible late last night watching a silly tv show, so I did sleep a bit later this morning. Well, I slept until Whitman came in my room around 8:30. He doesn't like to go in the living room if his brothers are not already up. He joined me in bed and soon asked to watch cake videos so we did that for a while before getting up for the day.
There were dishes and laundry to do this morning. I did work on everyone's school for next week-I get so excited about us finishing off things on our list.
The Wilsons brought by doughnuts this morning. Graham has been asking for doughnuts every single day. Robby told him that we would get them on our fourth Saturday stuck at home. Now we can wait another two weeks until we have to buy those doughnuts!
It was a fairly lazy day around here. Keaton, Campbell and Whitman jumped on the trampoline this morning when it started to rain. They were soaked when they came in, but they had a blast.
Most of Robby's day was spent working on straightening his office/pantry. I had already straightened the pantry part of his office earlier this week.
I spent some time on my school room closet. I am just trying to do a little section ever day so I am not overwhelmed. I guess that we inspired Keaton because she told me that she would clean her desk if I would help-I sure didn't turn down that offer.
Some people ate lunch around noon while others ate around 2 since some were up early and some were not. This made it seem like we were constantly fixing lunch or talking about what there was to eat today.
Robby left to get us pizza for our supper tonight. We had talked about my car a few times-needing to start it-since we haven't used it in 2 weeks. And of course, he had to work pretty hard to start it. He eventually got it working and headed off to get our supper.
Meanwhile, Reagan and I went out driving. It was raining pretty well so we drove ever so slowly to the big church and back home. I mean, really, can she ever get enough practice? And I feel the need that she must get all of the practice she can before Anderson is 14 which is just in 9 months and then shortly afterwards, Graham will be the one needing the practice. And now I need a bag to breathe in! Deep breaths! Deep breaths!
Our pizza was delicious-especially the dessert pizza. After we ate, most everyone went back out to the trampoline and yes, it is has rained and rained today. So they all came in soaking again. By the end of this little quarantine they are going to have beet a pretty good path to the trampoline and back!
We did wish Layne a Happy 18th Birthday tonight and briefly saw the Wilsons. I did snag a puzzle from their house so maybe we will start that this week as well. I am currently on a zoom call with some of my people-technology is pretty amazing.

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The first thing that Whitman does every morning lately is tear off one of his birthday countdown chains. The boy is highly anticipating his birthday. We will do our best to make it spectacular around here, but that is a little hard with no birthday party to look forward to. We don't usually buy birthday presents for the kids, but there is one in the attic for him so that will be exciting.
I guess that Whitman did drink a lot less water last night, so that was good for him and for my laundry. We were able to grab him and have him lay in bed with us for a little bit. Once he left, I started on my VBS workers. I'm still striking out, but if I read too many news articles then I start to think that we may not even have VBS.
Graham and Anderson were up early too this morning. They both played on the xbox before starting on their school work. I am afraid that the kids are not going to be happy with next week's work-a whole 5 days of school work. Yikes!
Campbell and Keaton also must have set their alarm to wake up early this morning since they were up way too early. We have tried to encourage everyone to sleep in a little bit, but no one seems to understand. Hopefully tomorrow someone (me!) will be able to sleep in.
Before we started on our together reading, Graham made French toast. He has been wanting to make it for a few days now, and today was the day. We just used sandwich bread and most everyone did like it. Graham said that he would make it again. I am not a soggy bread fan so I was not impressed.
We did our together work and then started on chores. Today's clothes project included all of the girls pants drawers-I helped Keaton. Anderson and Graham had to work on their shirt drawers. They "did" it themselves, but then we had to do it again so it was done right. We also worked on their closet as well.
After lunch, I also went through 2 bins of clothes to take to someone else. Usually when I deliver clothes to someone, they are just thrown in a bag. However, in the middle of this quarantine, I have plenty of time-so the clothes were folded neatly and organized in the box.
Reagan drove us down the road to drop off the clothes. My Campbell, Keaton and Graham are always up for a ride. We just went there and then came right back home. Campbell had a Zoom call with her friends so she was anxious to get home.
The girls, well everyone, has spent a good deal of time outside. They are using the trampoline pretty constantly today. I even ended up on it for a little bit this afternoon. Anderson and I worked on some Legos today as well. We started on set earlier this week but were missing pieces. So we set that one aside and started another to find more missing pieces so we are now on our third set. So far, it is coming along nicely though.
For supper we just heated up most everything we found from the freezer outside. Robby and I defrosted it today so we found lots of goodies-tater tots, chicken nuggets, french fries, fruit. Once supper was over, Keaton and Robby worked on making cookies for dessert. They were pretty delicious chocolate chip cookies.
While they baked Whitman took at least a 30 minute shower. We actually forgot about him in there! He was good and pruney when he joined us to play a board game. Once that was over, we ate the warm cookies and watched a game show before bed!

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I believe that today is Thursday! Whitman had slept with Keaton in her bed again last night, and this is the third night in a row that he woke up wet. Gracious me. I am not sure what is happening. I know that he went to the bathroom last night, but Keaton did say that he drank a lot of his water bottle while in the bed. Tonight, we will highly be monitoring how much the boy drinks!
Everyone did their school this morning while I worked on VBS workers. I text about 20 people this morning and heard form 4! People aren't too keen an responding to text these days plus everyone is a bit uncertain about the future so they aren't too excited to sign up.
We did all of our morning reading-lots of history reading. If you are keeping up with our World History reading, then you will be glad to know that we are now past WWI. After our reading, the kids headed off to do their chores. Whitman and I finished going through his clothes. We are blessed in that he has tons of shirts, so I just let him decide which ones he likes, and the others we put in the pile to give away.
Then it was lunch time-the kids pretty much made their own lunches. I think that I did make Whitman's lunch...or at least I hope that I did. He had supper so he is fine.
Around 1:30, we left to drop off some things at the Heltz' house. Then we went to the church down the road to explore. We walked around their little ponds and explored their gazebo before stopping for a bit of playtime on their slide.
Reagan drove us there and back home. This was the first time that I wasn't too stressed with her driving-we need to do some more practice on some busier roads in the next few days.
There was the daily basketball game late this afternoon. When the boys are on the same team, hilarity always ensues. They pretty much dominate the girls and me on the court so they pass the ball back and forth to each other instead of trying to make any shots. We played for about 30 minutes, and the score was just about 5-1.
We had bbq, mashed potatoes (which even after adding plenty of extra milk and butter where still not fluffy) and roasted green beans (which also weren't my favorite at all tonight.) I might have not been too hungry since Robby and I had eaten half of a cheese ball right before supper.
The evening was fairly quiet-there were lots of showers taken at here plus a few board games before bed.

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I laid in bed a bit longer this morning thinking that Robby was still in bed beside me. When I did turn over, he was indeed gone. I guess work started their emailing early so he had to hurry out of the bed.
He isn't off for this Spring Break week, but we sure are. The kids just have a little bit of their school work to do so things go swiftly and that leaves lots of time for fun things! Campbell has painted so much in the last few days that we have just about run out of paint.
We did finish our 1000 piece puzzle today. At one point I didn't think that it would get done. Reagan did it all but one piece which we could not find. I had already looked on the kitchen floor this afternoon while working on the puzzle and even looked inside of the puzzle box.
Graham walked up later and found the missing piece on the bottom of the box. He was delighted to finish the puzzle though Reagan was not delighted at all that he is the one who got the praise for finishing it.
We did our reading time today around 11. It didn't take too long and we even watched a video about capitalism, socialism and communism. Interesting fact: socialism was began by Karl Marx who was trying to ease everyone into communism. Reagan did chime in that everything but capitalism seemed to be silly.
After lunch, the kids did work on their underwear drawers. They only had to organize them-this week we are starting the big clothes switcheroo. I will say that my big boys don't have any clothes stored away since they have less clothes and plenty of room in their drawers. Now, Whitman also has all of his clothes in his drawers.
Keaton is the one who has tons and tons of clothes in her drawers and in the attic-she is the reason that I drag my feet on the clothes switchover. Tomorrow and the next day it will be warm so it is nearing time for warm weather clothes-however, most of my people have been covered up with blankets today.
The kids spent some time today on the treadmill. Campbell likes to take her ipad out to the trampoline and talk to her friends. They have been getting good use out of the trampoline the last few days.
Supper tonight was on your own. I did make some tater tots to add to the leftovers in the fridge. While everyone was eating our Sunday school class had a practice class on the computer for next Sunday. The church choir had something on the computer that we watched tonight along with the children's pastor. It was kind of nice seeing some people that you know!
As usual, we played a few games before bedtime! Then it was finally a later bedtime than usual.

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Tuesday morning and it sure was foggy when I finally climbed out of bed. I started on the laundry and soon moved to the dishes. Whitman had gotten his sheets wet, so that was also one of my first chores. I told Robby that I dreaded walking up the stairs to take his sheets off-maybe I need to go up and down those stairs more often during the day!
Whitman started on his school this morning. He had to do it on my computer so he laid in bed with Robby while doing school. I think that they both enjoyed that. Whitman is for sure loving his Spring Break School that is happening-all on the computer or ipad.
We soon started to work on our together work. Today's reading was about the trench warfare during WWI. It is nice to have uplifting reading during troubling times-kidding. The kids enjoyed today's history reading, and it was actually fairly interesting.
We then worked on our lunches-Anderson made eggs in the hole for his lunch while Graham made himself a sausage and egg bagel. My boys are all into cooking their eggs. Campbell even made lunch for Keaton and Whitman-we were out of bread so the grilled cheese on hamburger buns caused some concerns but everyone did eat them up.
Around 1, we all started on our chores for the day. This is Tuesday-house cleaning day. Today we divided out all of the chores at the beginning so things did go a bit smoother. I spent most of the time in my shower trying to clean it. It is at least better than when I started, but it is not yet perfect. Speaking of not perfect, I also scrubbed down the front of my kitchen cabinets. They are also better, but not yet perfect or anywhere near. I did get the Corona off of them!
The afternoon was pretty slow-so slow that I even snuck upstairs to take a nap. I wasn't asleep for too long because people kept asking me if I would play a game of basketball. I finally consented and played a very vicious game of basketball. It is interesting that when Robby was playing, everyone was happy and joyful-today, there was pushing and shoving and fussing and griping. So there will be no basketball for me tomorrow-does that mean that I have to get on the treadmill?
Robby and I did brave the virus and go to the store tonight. There were about the same amount of people out on the roads, but the store was definitely quieter-they even had bread. We did our shopping and even picked up some pizza on the way home.
Once at home, we all ate before video chatting with the Wilsons. Afterwards, I played a game, Cranium, with the kids. The game is pretty old-before Reagan-so some things were pretty hard for the crew. We made some adjustments and everyone had a good time. Anderson even joined in with us. After the game, there were just a few minutes of downtime before it was finally bedtime for the crew.
I have a lot of things on my Corona list to get to around here-mostly things to do with the kids (wii tournament, art projects, etc.) and a few house things (closet cleaning, clothes switchover, etc.) but I am sure not getting any of that stuff accomplished yet.

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Today was Monday morning of Spring Break and as I predicted last night, I was indeed the most productive today. I worked with Graham pretty early along with folding laundry, working on my Bible Study and texting people to find VBS workers.
The kids all had a tiny bit of school to do today. It didn't take long at all and by 11, we were all working together. After we did our reading, I worked on a few other things around the house-including my desk. I rarely, if ever, sit at my desk, but people are sitting there pretty much constantly-so it is always trashed even though it really isn't by my doing. It is all clean right now so that does make me happy!
Everyone at lunch and afterwards, Reagan and I went out to drive for a little bit. She is now paranoid about staying in between the lines so we kind of bouncy from one side to the other. Also she needs to work on turning just in her lane-though she is really doing very good. I would trust her to drive the Heltz or Wilsons by herself-it would take her a while, but she could get there.
Then Anderson and I worked on Legos some. Now Legos are not usually hard to do, but when you have to search through what seems like thousands of other pieces for each piece, then it does take a while. Today though we looked through every single Lego and could not find the piece we needed. We did email Lego and they are going to send it to us so in the meantime we had to pick set to work on.
The next activity was a family basketball game. Reagan and Whitman joined near the end, but were still valuable to their teams. One more than other-Reagan scored the winning shot for her team. The neighbors were probably very concerned about all of our yelling after her point!
We then came in for a little bit before supper. Campbell and Keaton busy chatting with their friends. Robby and I were hungry from our basketball game, so we made pancakes for everyone's supper. Well, Robby did the making and I did the helping!
After supper, the crew wound down and started doing their own things for a little bit. We did finally get around to Keaton's game tonight-Pictionary Air.

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I will say that I was truly sad today not getting to go to church. I know that I may grumble and complain sometimes silently and sometimes not so silently about church and all of the responsibilities that go along with it. However, today just made me sad...
So we watched a few sermons-Geyer Springs, First Baptist Orlando, Brooklyn Tabernacle, Rock Creek, Louie Giglio and Tony Evans along with a concert by Michael W. Smith. (Who knows, we may even up watching another one too.) Robby and I pretty much have not left our chairs in the living room all day long.
The kids all watched our church with us, but then we did release them to do whatever they would like. They would all pop back in the living room occasionally to watch some tv with us. I will say that once I walked back in the room and Whitman was singing along even though he has accused us often of "hogging the tv."
Nonna offered lunch at her house, but they ended up delivering it to our door. It was pretty nice having a hot meal delivered to the door. We could really get used to that. They didn't stay long so we fixed our plates and watched Dave preach. Side note: sermons seem shorter when you are eating!
Campbell and Keaton both spent time painting and writing cards for us to mail to a few church shut ins. Whitman also painted. There was lots of Minecrafting going on in this house-they even purchased some Minecraft thing.
Keaton and Campbell were also able to Facetime their friends while Robby and I Zoomed our friends. Reagan worked on her room a little bit-she took down some of her pictures and straightened her shelves. She was actually the most productive off all of the Dennies today.
We had our supper of leftovers tonight. Afterwards, Whitman did have a shower tonight-since his hair is now so long, one of us have to wash it for him. I am ready to cut it, but our clippers are fairly dull right now (we need new ones.)
I figure people will soon be asking for a snack before bed! Then it will shortly be the kids bedtime...and maybe ice cream for me!

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Everyone who slept in the fort must have slept very good because there was very little stirring in the living room this morning. Eventually we did here a few people move around. Whitman even walked through our room to go and get his shirt-he has taken to sleeping without a shirt. We did grab him and throw him into our bed for a little bit.
We actually asked him where he wanted to go today. Robby said that if you could go anywhere today, where would you want to go. We were thinking that Whitman's response was going to be Sonic or Rock Creeks playground. We were wrong. The boy replied, "Well, before the Corona I would have said France." Maybe we should turn the news off around here for a little bit!
This morning Robby and I didn't really do much of anything-there were of course dishes and laundry. I did pull out school for next week. I know that it is Spring Break week, but really, what else are we going to do. Everyone just has two different things to do each day, plus we will read our history and probably all of our Bible things (Bible chapter, devotional, verses and chapter we are memorizing.)
Reagan has always said that her friends do want to be homeschooled. Tonight though she was telling us that they have changed their mind and now do not want to be homeschooled! We tried to tell her to tell them that this is much more isolation than us homeschoolers even usually have!
This isolation has proved good for Reagan's driving practice. There were a few less people on the road today when she drove us to the church house-our church house! Then I drove to Sonic, and once we got back to Crystal Hill, she wanted to drive to the Wilson's (to drop off their Sonic) and then back home. We even had to back out of their drive way!
At home, I had a little nap before working on Legos with Anderson. Then I played a game of basketball with everyone but Reagan. Maybe because Anderson played, but things went incredibly smoothly. The boys smoked the girls even with Whitman on their team. The boys are so good trying to get their brother to improve and learn to love basketball like they do.
Afterwards, I ran inside with Campbell while Keaton was facetimeing one of her friends. Campbell and I made some flat bread-it was fun to make and not hard. However, it wasn't incredibly tasty! Though when we poured honey on it, it was pretty yummy. Anything with honey on it can't be that bad!
We also tried a new recipe tonight-chicken enchiladas. They were delicious, and the recipe was definitely a keeper. We worked on the puzzle quite a bit tonight, and it most certainly will be completed this week.
It is Saturday night so we did make all of the kids take a shower-we have to have some normalcy around here!

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Well, basically we did the same thing today that we did yesterday! Let me see what the few differences were-Reagan did not climb through the window during school today. In history, we are now reading about WWI. Campbell finished her spelling book, and Anderson also finished a logic book. And we did finish a bit earlier than usual so I went upstairs to work on Legos.
I was so happy when I finished the Legos because I thought that I had found all the pieces to finish our project. I was wrong-very wrong. I didn't realize that I should have found 4 of each piece that I did find. Later tonight I did help him finish those pieces so Lego set number 2 is completed for this week. I told him that as long as we are staying in we should try to finish one a week.
I did switch from my now usual sandwich at lunch and moved to yogurt and granola. While I ate, I worked on the puzzle. I seem to be the only one working on it right now-maybe we have overwhelmed the kids with a 1000 piece puzzle.
This afternoon Reagan asked to drive. So we headed out around 4:30. We drove one way down the Lawson and then the other. When it was time to pull out on Lawson (left turn), Reagan decided that she didn't really want to drive home at all. I tried to encourage her, but she was more than happy to switch seats with me.
The kids have all gone outside at different times during the day. Being home is our normal, but they are a little bit more stir crazy. I did see Campbell on my computer today, and she said that she was looking up how many virus cases there were. I quickly told her to put that away, no one needs information overload.
The Wilsons did bring over their leftover supper. They didn't have many folks that liked it-it was like a patty melt that tasted like a Krystal's hamburger. It was decent, but just like Krystals it was full, and I mean full of onions! I did eat one for supper and then promptly went and brushed my teeth.
The evening was kind of quite. We had leftover bbq and did find out that we are a more than one box of mac and cheese family. We probably should have already known that though. The girls made a package of cookies for our snack tonight. And other than that, we didn't really do much at all this evening!....well, once these kids go to bed or go to their fort (they have built a huge fort in the living room to sleep in tonight), I do play on getting me some ice cream!

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Today was pretty much a normal day around here. We did our morning reading, and then stopped to watch a bit of weather school on Facebook. While that was on, I did let the kids work on their school work while I folded the clothes.
When that was finished, we started work on school. I was talking to Reagan at one point in my bedroom, and the next thing I knew she was gone. Upon further investigation, I noticed that the window was open. Gracious, at least she is climbing through windows during the daytime.
A few minutes later, I was telling Whitman that he could skip his math when seconds later, he too was missing from the room. Reagan had walked by and grabbed her brother from the room. By this time, it was starting to sprinkle so they didn't stay outside too long. Not many people probably have their kids climbing in and out of the windows during the day.
The kids finished up their school work right before lunch. So we started on making our lunch-PF Changs lettuce wraps. Whitman chopped mushrooms while Campbell and Graham peeled the carrots. Reagan worked on chopping the carrots and was in charge of stirring.
It took a good while, but we eventually had our lunch made. Don't be surprised but I did have some that did not eat our yummy meal-Robby, Keaton, Whitman and Anderson. While we finished cooking, Robby ran to support the local BBQ economy.
The rest of the afternoon was spent working Legos with Anderson and played basketball with most everyone. Whitman is getting the hang of basketball a tiny bit-at least he wants to go out there and play with us.
We had BBQ for supper tonight. When we finished, we did start a new rule around here-two kids have to clean the kitchen. Keaton and Campbell actually volunteered tonight.While they worked, I worked on the new puzzle. This is a 1000 piece puzzle which I would like to sneak in the kitchen and work on right now but will pass on that.
We did play the game of Sequence tonight. Whitman had not played before but some how he and I won the game. We then watched a Bates show before finding a snack!

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This was indeed a bit of a different Wednesday. I always hope that we have snow days so our Bible study in cancelled, but today I would have probably paid money to go! I will say that even though our lives always seem like we are social distancing, this is getting old.
It may be getting old, but we aren't bored around here. We have so many things on our list to do that we can't even finish them all. Now, I may have been stalling a bit on getting on the treadmill but it hasn't happened yet this week. Maybe next week.
We started on our school work. I just seemed to be slammed this week while working with the kids. I am not finishing until well after noon. I am going to hurry it up a little bit over the next few days!
After lunch, we did gather and watch a Louie Giglio video. After that, it was free time for the people. I did work on our puzzle some and tried to work on Legos with Anderson but we didn't have much luck.
Campbell and Keaton did take everyone's drink orders. That kept them busy for a little bit. As supper was baking in the oven, we did send everyone outside to play for a little bit. They were eager to come in or they were eager to eat!
After eating, we started on the shower drill. Then it was time to make cookies and play a game. Robby and I did sneak away for an outside walk and practiced social distancing while visiting with friends down the street as we walked a couple of minutes.
Last night Robby told me that my blog was starting to get a bit boring. And after reading the blog tonight, sorry, it is a bit boring. I will try to spice it up some more tomorrow!

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Again today Anderson was working on his work early. I was still in bed continually hitting snooze when he came in twice to hand me completed work. I do think that he is racing his brother to be the first one on the xbox each morning-I will happily take whatever it is that is causing him to finish in a more timely manner.
We did eventually get started on our school today. Whitman, who isn't really crazy about math, has started new math. He is now adding up two double digit numbers (33+25). He started this yesterday. The first problem was a word problem so I tried to write it and explain it for me. He quickly stopped me and said that he wanted to do it by himself. And sure enough the boy did some counting, worked on his fingers and managed to get the right answer. I was shocked!
My Keaton is determined to finish her spelling book this week. That is fine so we are doing a lesson a day instead of our normal lesson a week. We are marking things off-I did make a list of every day to do history over the next few weeks and wrote out page numbers...I didn't account for this extra time at home, so maybe we can get a few extra pages read.
We had our lunches-I have started to sit down and eat myself a lunch lately. Usually, I skip lunch and just graze all afternoon long. I have decided that I really like ranch dressing-on my chips, on my sandwich and on pretty much everything!
The afternoon went by pretty quickly. There was lots of puzzle working-we finished two. Campbell and Keaton were the main puzzle workers today. Reagan does stop whenever she walked by to work some as well.
I worked in a closet some before Robby and I headed to the grocery store. Most things the store has, but there are still some things missing-I had to stop a worker and ask for the flour in his cart. No vinegar or biscuits-I guess people are cleaning and making breakfast.
We then picked up supper at Slim Chickens. We have eaten there before and weren't crazy about it, but today was pretty good. It was a lot easier than making something at home with all of those new groceries that we bought!
We did buy 2 new puzzles at the store-one 500 pieces and one that is 1,000 pieces. The girls and I went to town on the smaller one. I would bet we would finish it tomorrow. After we eat, some folks played outside.
We did have a vicious game of Apples to Apples before watching some tv before bed. Tomorrow will really seem a bit different without having Bible study or church, but we will survive!

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Whelp, we heard those dreaded words last night-a kid was sick. Campbell did come down to tell us that Keaton was sick. I believe that she worded her message like this, "Reagan says it's my turn to tell you that Keaton threw up." I guess neither one of Keaton's sisters are too sympathetic.
However, Anderson is. When he saw the blanket in our room this morning and asked. He did say that he hated that for Keaton. Even though Keaton was sick last night, she went right to sleep in our room and didn't have any trouble for the rest of the night.
When I did go upstairs this morning to wake everyone up, the boys were all playing the xbox. I told them that we were going to all work together in 10 minutes. Graham told me that he had finished his school, and Anderson added that he had also finished his. I was completely shocked?
I sure don't want to discourage him from doing his work early, but gracious me! He has the next 8 weeks before we leave the house again! School did go very well today. I am looking so forward to more and more things being off of our list. Now I have to decide since next week is officially spring break, do we still do school since we are here with nothing fun to do?
Though we have had some fun today-Reagan and I went out driving. We went just down the road to the big church, but she did well. Anderson and I re-worked a messed up Lego set. Campbell and I worked on a puzzle and almost finished it. Graham, Campbell, Keaton, even Whitman and I played a bit of basketball outside. So everyone has had some quality time....and I'm exhausted!
Robby did his normal work today. I did hang out upstairs with him for awhile this evening. We did eventually come down to work on supper. We are on operation clean out the deep freeze. It needs to be defrosted, but we are going to try to eat through it first. Though maybe we need to go to the store and fill it up because of all this craziness.
We had bbq that we had bought for the trip along with corn on the cob and cookies both from the freezer. I pulled out strawberries too but we decided to save them for waffles which will be soon.
The Wilson's did break the advice of the CDC and come over tonight. They had to use the printer for a bit. No worries though we lysoled when they left! We did eat our cookies and I quickly typed out the blog before it was bedtime. Now, last night I didn't get my ice cream, but today I plan on eating some!

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What strange times that we live in. We went to bed packed and thinking that we would leave for our trip after lunch. By the time that we woke up, our trip had been cancelled. There was just a bit too much uneasiness about everything that we opted to delay.
My people all took it well-probably better than Robby and I. They have already had quite a few things cancelled, but this was the first thing we were super looking forward to. Anderson did say that it was pretty disappointing since we were packed already.
Indeed it was, but we probably made the right decision. It sounds like more and more restaurants are closing, at least one state has closed their state parks and another announcement is coming tomorrow on possibly more restrictions. However, Utah is still high on our list so don't be surprised if we sneak off there sooner rather than later.
Surprisingly, it takes no time at all to completely unpack the car. I was a bit shocked by this fact. The kids put up their bags, and most of the rest of our packing involved putting up food. I folded quite a bit of laundry this morning, and soon afterwards it was time to head to Grannymom's house for lunch.
Grannymom had brisket and lots of sides. Lunch was delicious and so was her dessert-chocolate pie. After eating, the boys went to Cash's house to play basketball. Campbell and Keaton also went there to play with their dogs. We let them play for a while before heading to pick them up.
Even though it doesn't feel like a Sunday right now, we still had our afternoon naps. I say naps because I napped, got up to peel an apple and then finished my nap. Once that was over, I worked on school for next week which has been a process.
Last Thursday, I pulled out school for this week thinking it would be a regular week. When we then suddenly planned the trip, I planned again for the kids to have a lighter week of school. Now, we are back to today. Since it now looks like things will be cancelled for a bit longer, Robby kidded that maybe we should just work really hard and move the kids up a grade over the break. However, this next week we are pretty much doing a normal schedule with a few things left out plus adding a few things to finish off.
This evening we had a light supper-sandwiches. Then Campbell, Keaton, Whitman and I played Sorry. Next, Keaton, Whitman, Graham and I played The Game of Life. And that game lasted forever it seemed! We did end the evening though with a few tv shows before heading to bed!...well, the kids headed to bed and I plan on eating some ice cream!

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Well, Robby and I were so tired when we went to bed that we both slept super well. We went to bed way later than planned because those silly kids upstairs were so wound up. Robby did sleep on the couch-I guess this was the first time in our marriage that he even started out on the couch.
Whitman had Robby's spot in the bed. He was so pleased with himself. Now the boy is a little heater and continually would move closer to me during the night. I hope that he doesn't expect to sleep in my bed more often because that is not going to happen.
We slept in a tiny bit this morning. All of the kids were awake early except for Whitman. Robby and I were soon in the garage and mudroom packing up. I usually pack slowly and tediously over a week. However today, I did all of the slow and tedious packing in 4 hours-it wasn't slow at all, and I was throwing things into boxes like a mad woman.
Pops and Nonna came over for a bit. They brought some cookies for the kids on the trip. I had to immediately put the cookies in a bin or the kids would have tried to eat them. I have some kids ready to go on the trip, yet others who are not that anxious at all. I will say that this has been sprung on them plus they aren't even really sure about where we are going. Usually on road trips, we have talked about and read about every stop before leaving so this is all unknown to them. I do have the atlas out so tomorrow we can discuss the plans better.
Robby and I did run to the grocery store for some trip food. It was a bit like shopping the day before Thanksgiving. They were completely out of toilet paper (we didn't need any). They were also out of hot dog buns so we didn't buy hot dogs, but other than that the low stock didn't really effect us.
We ran to pick up pizza on the way home for the kids, then we may or may not have ran into the bakery right next door. Then we may or may not have split an absolutely delicious cinnamon roll on the way home. I did decide that when I grow up, I might want to work at that bakery-just long enough to learn all of their recipes!
Back at home, the kids all had to pack. They can all do it themselves (except Whitman). I just have to see what they have pulled out and give it the okay. I also prefer to help them fold since they aren't great at that at all.
Soon we loaded up with our lasagna, bread and ooey gooey and went to the Wilson's house. Shannon had some spaghetti and salad so we fed the crew. Then we worked on the puzzle some. Layne, Reagan, Brett and I think Campbell worked on the puzzle most of the night long. It is a huge one, but they made some good progress tonight.
We stayed out too late but had lots of fun. When we came home, a few people had showers, but everyone headed to bed. Tomorrow will be a pretty busy day!

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Today was a bit of a limbo day-we went to bed thinking we would be packing all day today but woke up with plans delayed a bit. Now tonight, we also go to bed thinking we will be packing all day tomorrow. We shall see, but it looks like the Dennies will soon be on the road again.
The kids had a tiny bit of school to do today so when they did wake up they did that. We did work together for a tiny bit before doing a tiny bit of chores. As you can see-the only real things that they did today was just a tiny bit. Other than that, they did pretty much nothing.
I also did pretty much nothing today. I have a whole list of things to do, but I guess that I am still pleased with myself for organizing the attic the other day so I wasn't too productive today.
Robby, Keaton and I did go to Sams. Robby needed some medicine, and we also found some chips that we needed. We didn't really need anything else so we didn't buy much. Now we did need some grocery store food, but that fun will come tomorrow.
Once we came home, Robby and Reagan did some driving. When they returned home, she did say that I was a calmer driving instructor than Robby. I think that Robby makes her more nervous, so she gets uptight which just spirals a bit!
This evening we went to down to road for some hot dogs. We haven't been out of our normal routines for a whole day yet, but the kids were sure glad to see each other. The kids played the entire time only stopping to eat. The adults chatted the whole time, only stopping to eat!
We came home with two extra kiddos tonight. Then there was a bit of trip planning late this evening which meant that we didn't get the kids into bed until around midnight.
Plus, Whitman didn't want to leave his bed tonight for the boys' friend so we had to convince him with sleeping in our room. He would only come downstairs to sleep if he slept in my bed with me-so yep, Robby is on the couch!
It is nearly 1 now, and I did just have to fuss at the kids to go to sleep. Now to move Whitman back over to his side-he is a cuddler and keeps rolling back towards me!

March 12, 2020 and the SEC Championship!

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Well, as we figured last night, the SEC Championship didn't really pan out like Robby and the kids had hoped. They ended up eating a Holiday Inn Express breakfast complete with cinnamon rolls before loading up to come back home. (Campbell was so looking forward to a pancake machine, but the one there was broken! Maybe we should have pancakes soon.)
Back at home, Whitman did in face stay in Keaton's bed all night long last night. He did look confused when he walked into my room this morning and saw a pallet on the floor. I told him that he could sleep on it tonight, but he reminded me that he wanted to sleep in my bed tonight. I reminded him that his daddy would be back in that spot-we will see who wins that position tonight!
Whitman and I did a bit of school work-I only had working together with him as his work. He was more than thrilled to learn that he didn't have to do any real writing work. And I was more than thrilled to just do our together work.
I worked around the house this morning-laundry, dishes, treadmill, organizing an attic-all while Reagan watched the back of her eye lids, Whitman watched his ipad and I watched my phone seeing thing after thing cancelled in the upcoming weeks.
It is an interesting time that we currently live in. I am a bit bummed for Robby and the kids that they are missing the games-Graham was disappointed that we can't even watch the games. There was an event at Museum of Discovery Friday night along with Bible study and church for the next week.
After listening to all of this all morning long, when I left the house I did what any good homeschooling mom would do-no, not the grocery store, I went to the library. I didn't have long because I was headed to the pregnancy center, but I still grabbed some books.
And I can't forget to add that when I left the house, Reagan was still asleep! I had to wake her up to tell her that Whitman was there and would need some attention.
My time at the pregnancy center went by quickly. There was lots of disinfecting along with clothes folding. Soon I was on the way home and was happy to see that Reagan was indeed out of bed and downstairs near Whitman when I returned.
I had been home a bit when Robby and the crew came home. They had had a really good trip and still enjoyed their time even though it was shorter than anticipated. They did eat at a yummy bbq place in Memphis.
We unloaded the car, but not too much because Robby is itching to get out of town for a little bit. Who knows where we may end up this next week? Soon most everything was unpacked-actually, I guess no one unpacked their bags! There is always tomorrow since we are having another lighter day of school!
We spent the evening watching tv and some of us even played Monopoly before it was finally bedtime!

March 11, 2020 and the SEC Championship!

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I am not too sure why Wednesday mornings are so crazy; maybe because it is the earliest that we ever have to leave the house. Plus there are all those Bibles, and Bible study books, and balls for the park, and two heads of hair to crimp, and jackets along with 3 different snacks this morning. It does make things so, so much easier that the kids now have some sense and can help out this morning.
The kids all love taking in their snacks for Bible study. Whitman's class just has goldfish or crackers each day so he is so ready to have good snacks! I do enjoy letting them have a chance to cook something just themselves though.
After Bible study, we went to someone's house. Candice knows them, but other than seeing her face at Bible study, we had never met. That house had 7 kids, plus some others that were over there, plus another family with quite a few (they drive a large van if that tells you anything), my 6, Candice's 4 and one other family. Um, yep-there were at least 30 kids. It was crazy, but nice nonetheless!
Anderson, Graham, Campbell and Keaton weren't there for very long because Robby soon showed up with Andrew and Eli. Our van was loaded down, and they all headed out to the SEC Championship in Nashville.
The kids were all excited-especially Graham. He could hardly wait this morning to finish Bible study so they could get on the road. Robby will probably detail their day a little bit more, but they made it to the arena in time to see some of the earlier game and then did their best to cheer the Hogs on to victory.
That just left Reagan, Whitman and I. We ran to Walmart-not for toilet paper or hand sanitizer, but for Easter eggs and bread. Once we made it to the big church on Lawson, Reagan drove on home for me.
I was a bit productive this afternoon, but I also did have a nap. It was worth it! We soon loaded up for church. Reagan drove down Lawson and Crystal Valley. By the time we got to the end of Crystal Valley, she was happy to let me drive the rest of the way.
We ran to the library before church. Then it was to church. There weren't as many kiddos there tonight so we ended up spending a bit of extra time on the playground. Once at home tonight, Reagan and I heated up potstickers while Whitman opted for a grilled cheese.
I let them stay up a bit too late-that was fine with Reagan, but Whitman is convinced that he can't sleep by himself. He started out in his bed and is now in Keaton's bed. I am going to go ahead and make him a pallet in my floor because I know that he will end up with me!

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School went pretty well today. Graham, Campbell and Keaton were the ones who had all finished their school work before the day had even started. I do find it funny that the kids who can speed through their school work are the ones who do it early.
We did our morning work together and then started on everyone's individual school work. Whitman did pretty well today, but he can still find a zillion things to do. I get a bit nuts when he stops writing in the middle of the word!
We finished our school work by noonish so that was wonderful. Then I ate my lunch before we did some more reading together. Then it was our Tuesday clean the house time! It took a bit longer today than last week, but the house is decent-ish at least for a few days.
Then since Campbell, Graham and Reagan all had snack tomorrow for Bible study, we went to work in the kitchen. I fried 2 pounds of meat. Reagan made chocolate oatmeal cookies. Campbell prepared cheese dip to heat it up tomorrow. And finally, Graham made ooey gooey.
While the ooey gooey was baking, Reagan and most everyone else jumped in the car to run to Nonna and Pops' house. And Reagan drove and we made it! She really did pretty well. (She only had one person pass her!) I hope to get her very comfortable driving over there and then we can branch out to other places!
We then came home, and somehow I ended up outside playing basketball. Then we joined Robby loading up the car.
Tonight's supper was most more appreciated than last night's supper. Anderson was pretty relieved that we weren't having leftovers. Tonight was Hamburger Helper. Robby remembers having it in college and liking it, but we weren't huge fans tonight even with some sausage in it. The kids didn't seem to mind though!
Afterwards, the kids started on their showers before we all settled in to watch some tv before bed.

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I never really wake up in the middle of the night, and last night I did. I was a bit shocked because since it was the night after time change, I was supposed to be more tired, not unable to go back to sleep. I even decided that if I couldn't go to sleep by a certain time, I would get on the treadmill. There was no cause for alarm though because I was soon back asleep.
I did hit snooze long enough that we started at 8:30 today. Imagine my surprise when I went to wake everyone up, and they were all still sleeping. Now, this bothered Graham though. He loves to wake up early, do his school and still have time to play on his ipad before the day really gets started. This morning he was still having to do school with everyone else!
School was fine-I did realize that we still have of our history text book to finish. Ugh! Double ugh! I might try to kick it up into high gear, but I just don't know if I have it in me. We might just have to continue it next year-double ugh! Maybe I need a schedule-that is what I need!
School was fairly uneventful today. Whitman seemed to be "on" and was able to finish at a decent time. He is so funny as he shouts, "I'm done with school," every time that he finishes his daily school work. The day would be more entertaining if everyone else would shout that as well.
I did some quick packing-some folks are taking a trip later this week. And no, no one is having to go to boarding school. Anderson and I also worked a puzzle but it is nowhere near as fun as the Wilsons' puzzle. For instance, we worked for 10 minutes and found 2 pieces. That isn't fun at all!
At 2, I headed to the church house for a Comm Central meeting. Reagan will be taking classes there next year-I'm relieved about that since high school English and science aren't my things. It will be pricey, but will take a load off of my plate, and she is thrilled about it.
When I came home, I did some treamilling and some croc shoe cleaning. The girls all have white crocs so it was definitely time to clean those babies. I made a difference for sure, but they are pearly white still.
Anderson, Graham, Campbell and Keaton spent a good deal of the afternoon outside despite the rain. They played basketball and came in so wet that Robby made them take a shower and put on dry clothes.
Robby made Chinese for supper with the help of Trader's Joes. After supper, Reagan did some driving around the street. The roads were wet so I told her no, but she insisted, correctly, that she did need to learn to drive in all types of weather. We didn't go far but hopefully she did gain some confidence.
Then we played some Monopoly-Graham, Campbell, Keaton, Whitman and me. It was pretty entertaining-Whitman takes what seems like forever to determine how many he rolled. The others would say it for him and he would get upset at them. Finally, they did back off a bit and let him figure it out.
We played for a while and once the game was paused, the girls and Robby made popcorn-butter and kettle. After eating the kids still had some downtime before it was finally bedtime.

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It wasn't hard to find the kids this morning-Reagan was gone, Campbell and Keaton were in Campbell's bed, Anderson was all alone in his bed and Whitman was in Graham's bed. It did make it nice not to have to traipse to 6 different beds to wake people up.
And wake people up, I had to do. Everyone was still sleeping. Robby would have overslept despite his two alarms. I do believe that my multiple alarms and the multiple times that I hit snooze is what finally woke him up.
Despite the time change, I still had time to crimp Campbell's hair. That is all the rage at this house right now. I have started refusing to do their hair unless we are actually going to leave the house and see real people.
It was good to be back at church. It was pretty much as we had left it, and not much new seemed to be happening. Our little class was down a bit so that made things easier. After church, we loaded up and went to Nonna's house for supper.
Pops had made tenderloin which is the kids' favorite-mine too. We ate quite a bit of it and then devoured some of Nonna's ice cream. She had about 6 different cartons to choose from. Anderson and Jason worked a Lego thing and Whitman built a fort while Robby and Reagan snoozed for a bit.
Once at home, there was a lot more snoozing once we made it home. Robby and I had our naps while Reagan made brownies for life group. We might need a few more baking lessons-like putting the bowl in the dishwasher and turning off the oven.
Soon I was taking chef Reagan, Anderson, Kennedy and Alyssa to life group. They really enjoy their life group-it is lots of people and lots of fun. We went to our own life group at the Wilson's house-ha! It isn't a life group, but pretty much the same thing-we ate and chatted.
They had a puzzle out that we worked on some. Tony made beignets which were pretty good. We have a trip to the Masters coming up so we made some plans for it-basically our plans consisted of eating!
We did eventually come home since tomorrow is Monday, and we needed plenty of time to prepare for the rest of the week. Monday's are just no fun! Though surely we can manage to squeeze some fun in tomorrow some how!

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I will say that this is a pretty perfect Saturday. Especially since we were still being lazy around 10 this morning. Actually, we were pretty lazy most of the day long.
I did do some laundry and dishes, but other than that the only things that I did today were not housework. Now, I did pull out the rest of school for next week. Plus I found at least 10 more things to get rid of. If you remember, I am trying to get rid of 500 things and only have about 450 more to do!
I worked on my National Park stickers which I rarely get a chance to do. There was also some puzzle working with Anderson. I will tell you that that puzzle is going to be nearly impossible. I will try my best, but I would have better chance of turning it over and working it. The puzzle is made up of tiny pictures on each piece. These pictures are so small that I can't even tell what they are.
Whitman worked on his bike riding with Campbell and Keaton, and Reagan worked on her driving. Ugh, one baby learning to ride a bike and one learning to drive! She drove to Alyssa's house where she is spending the night. She did pretty well for not driving in over a month while we were on our trip.
We watched the Hogs lose again today. I don't seem to watch the basketball games often, but when I do it seems that they lose this year. Maybe I am bad luck and should have just taken a nap!
After the game, we loaded up to run to the store one more time-cookies were on sale and they are my trip cookies so we need plenty-you never know when another trip may pop up. Then we picked up pizza.
Oh, yes, I forgot to mention the most entertaining part of the day. Well, when I say entertaining-we could have laughed or we could have cried-so I chose to laugh and laugh. I walked by the school room just in time to see Whitman lift up the slime that he was playing with and put it on his head. I could tell that he was struggling to pull it out of his hair when I started laughing. Hearing him call, "Mom, Mom, I need a little help here?" sent my over the edge.
Nope, slime does not come out of hair easily-except with vinegar. I quickly put him on the kitchen sink and doused him with vinegar. All was soon well, but I am sure that he won't soon forget not to put slime in his hair!

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Today was the last day of school for the week, and it was pretty great. I always enjoy the last of a 4 day school work because there is no spelling to do with everyone. This makes me super happy-also thinking about next year thrills me because I will only be doing spelling with three kiddos.
Doing spelling with Whitman does still take forever. Today though was the first time that I didn't feel like banging my head on the wall. I have slowed way down and am now content knowing that he will just do some spelling all summer long. We will eventually get it all done.
Most everyone was finished with school before 11ish. I still had to finish up a few school things and even started pulling out school for next week.
Around lunch time, the kids grabbed their own lunches while I made myself some hot chocolate. I have been craving hot chocolate since we came home from our trip. It was delicious-and pretty rich. I might just make myself some tomorrow.
This afternoon wasn't too busy. I was actually headed to the treadmill when Graham asked if I would played basketball. I ended up outside playing a pretty rough game of basketball with Graham, Anderson, Campbell and Keaton. There was pushing and shoving and lots of fouling, but surprisingly everyone took it well and enjoyed the game.
When the game was over, something happened that I didn't think would ever happen-Whitman rode his bike! We have worked on this for a while now, but today I think he finally got it. We still need to work on riding, but we were super proud of him today!
This evening we all took Anderson and Graham to their basketball practice. While they were practicing, the rest of us went to Grannymom's house. Robby worked on their taxes while the rest of us ate ice cream. I picked up the boys, and when Robby finished up we headed to ChickFilA for supper.
Once we finished our chicken, we then ran to the grocery store. The kids stayed in the car while Robby and I did some speed sale shopping. Then we raced home for the kids to have a few minutes of downtime before it was finally a late bedtime on this Friday night.

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Today was a fairly quiet day around here. We started our school work around 8:30. This was the first day that we did actually do our together work in the morning since being home. We read a little bit, said some verses and worked a few logic puzzles.
Then was time for everyone to start on their school work. Graham, of course, had finished his school work well before I had gotten out of bed. I started working with everyone in the hallway today-Robby was in our room, the living room seemed cold and the school room was full of people.
It took all morning long for me to finish working with everyone and checking all of the math. Anderson and Reagan both have math right now that is giving them fits, but I am loving it. It is math that I remember and enjoy. I am sure that they will get it quickly; hopefully tomorrow.
After we finished school, everyone had lunch. I pulled out school for tomorrow-I am not back in a routine of doing it each week so I have been doing this daily lately. It is no small job.
I walked on the treadmill some before helping Keaton with a project. Then it was off to the store with Keaton and Campbell. We were out of pretty much everything so it is good to have a fullish pantry now...except none of that can really make a supper.
The kids all went outside to play when we came home. Everyone was outside for a bit while I did work on supper. It was burrito bowls and no surprise here, it wasn't a hit. I made a new recipe-I did like it except for the chicken. It did kill hunger, though I am sure that a few kiddos were starving tonight after barely eating any supper at all. Unfortunately, I don't have great kitchen skills and won't be passing that along to my girls!
The evening was fairly quiet. Graham watched basketball while I took a nap with Keaton-she didn't sleep but she was in my lap. At bedtime, Graham was trying his best to stay up way later so he could see more basketball. He will be able to watch it tomorrow so all will be well!

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Today was our first day back at Bible Study, and I almost decided that we were going to skip one more week before I was able to get out the door. Bless, it was tough this morning! The boys were all awake, but the girls were slow to get out of bed.
Then, and this happens every week, I some how loose about 20 minutes-I'm not sure what happens. I look at the clock once and have plenty of time. Then I look again, and I am about to be late.
We had to pack our lunches which wasn't that hard since the pantry and fridge are empty here. I know that we need to go to the grocery store, but I think that we are trying to just wait and see really how long we can last.
The kids teachers were all super excited to see them today. They hugged them like they had not seen them in weeks-those Bible study teachers are just some of the best. The kids were happy to be back with their buddies.
And everyone was happy that we went to the park after class. The kids played and played the entire time. We eventually had to leave because Reagan had an orthodontist appointment. Sara and Candice were generous enough to take my crew home so they all didn't have to go to the ortho with Reagan.
Reagan just has to come one more time to the orthodontist, and then she should be officially graduated. She will still have to wear her retainer, but she will not have to come back for check ups. That will happen about the same time that some other Dennie kid has to start their braces business I am sure.
After the orthodontist, Reagan did her best to try to convince me to take her somewhere, but I held strong though I really wanted a hot chocolate from somewhere-I have just been so cold today. The afternoon was kind of slow around here-maybe because it was so short
We had to leave at 4:30ish to make it to the library and to church in time. We ate there tonight-meatloaf. The kids weren't huge fans, but Robby and I really liked it. Our class was fine tonight-it actually seemed short.
Then we ended our evening at the Wilson's house. Tony had bought dessert, so we gobbled it up as we all told stories of our travels. They have been gone as much as us lately so everyone was glad to be back together.

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We are still doing our "trip school" around here. Trip school consists of most of their important things, but not quite everything. This shortened version of school is usually finished fairly quick by everyone, so I am not looking forward to adding more things back into the mix.
I intended to start school around 8:30, but instead I ended up working on Anderson's pins about that time. Then once I did get school started, I forgot to get Reagan up so that did put her a little bit behind.
At 11:30, we did work together which we have been neglecting. That just means that we will be reading history well into the summer. Our history this year is just tough-I am all for women's suffrage and all (even exercised that right today), but reading 5 pages about it is just too, too much for anyone!
After we finished our work together, we worked on chores. I have decided that I want to start doing all of our major chores on one day of the week that way we will have everything clean for a while. Otherwise, we clean something and have other things dirty until the next few days and by then the things cleaned first aren't clean anymore. I do need to get back to a better chore list-this coming back to reality thing is just pretty tough!
When the chores were done, the kids ate their lunch. I sat down and had an apple with cheese and peanut butter. It was delicious, but we are out of apples. We haven't been to the grocery store yet, and I guess that we are trying to see how long we can go without buying food.
Anderson did finish putting all of his pins in the album. And under some moment of weakness, I did say that I would work a puzzle with him. I enjoy puzzles, but not huge dark Star Wars puzzles! Yikes, hopefully we can finish it by 2021.
I left with a few kids this afternoon to run by Grannymom's house to pick up something Reagan ordered. When I left I told Robby that Keaton and Reagan were going with me. By the time I pulled out of the garage, I text Robby to tell him that Graham and Campbell were also with me. Much later, Robby wrote saying that he had been looking for Graham and Campbell before he saw my text. He almost had Anderson ride down the road on his bike to look for them. I told them that it was a good thing that I had not wrote Robby that we were stuck in a ditch somewhere!
The kids had soccer tryouts tonight. They enjoy running through the stations, but even more than that they enjoy running around while Robby is finishing helping with the tryouts. Reagan helped man a table the entire time.
When tryouts were over, I ran by Nonna's house to pick up some things while Robby's car ran to get pizza. Then we met back up to vote quickly before eating our pizza at home.
Everyone had showers tonight. After my shower, I played a few rounds of Nertz with the kids and they even stayed up a bit later that we probably should have so we could finish our games.

(click here for today's pictures)

The priority this morning was calling the doctor at exactly 8:00. I called and since I didn't want to leave a message, I had to call and call again. I did get an appointment for Whitman at 9:10 so that was pretty perfect.
Whitman was already up this morning playing on his ipad, but after I got the appointment he laid down in our bed until it was time to go. On the car ride to the doctor, he ate a bit of a grilled cheese and laid down the rest of the time.
It was pretty pitiful, and Martin said that his ear looked pretty pitiful as well. We were in and out at the doctor's office, and really we only had to wait a little bit at the pharmacy. Soon we were home giving Whitman his first dose of meds.
I didn't wear my watch today so I don't really know how many steps I took. I will say that I didn't sit down long-the laundry is done, the dishes are clean, the bags are unpacked (still haven't gotten to mine), school is done and even ready for tomorrow.
The longest activity of the day was helping everyone with their Disney pins. We can't just leave them in ziplock baggies. Anderson has at least 200 pins (not exaggerating in the least). He bought a collector book to put them in so that was a bit of work. I can only say that we have a lot of pins!
There were also transportation cards to organize along with cards from each country in Epcot. So many things to organize and put away after a trip. Late this afternoon, the neighbors came out. They haven't been around in a long while so all of the kids were super excited to go out and play.
Of course the boys couldn't play that long because they had Trail Life tonight. We did let Whitman stay home since he has still be a bit puny-not just seconds ago though he was doing the floss dance while watching his show.
Once the boys left, the neighbors weren't out too much longer since the sun was going down. My girls came in to eat supper. We made chicken nachos and cinnamon toast for suppers. Then we pretty much vegged out until the boys come home.

Florida February: Our Trip by the Numbers

It was an awesome trip and the numbers don't lie:

36 days
35 nights
31 days at Disney
9 visits to Magic Kingdom
12 visits to Epcot
10 visits to Hollywood Studios
8 visits to Animal Kingdom
3 laundry detergents used
3 trips to the outlet
1 droid built
1 light saber built
2 trips to the Cheesecake Factory
6 times swimming
1 rocket launch viewed
1 first tooth lost
27 doughnuts bought
9 pairs of Minnie ears bought (4 were not ours)
1 day at the beach
4 ride on Rock N Roller Coaster (Whitman's first time)
10 things left on our list to do next time
4 church services at First Baptist Orlando
5 cases of water drank (Florida water is not good.)
10 foods from Epcot countries eaten
40 dollars in tolls
1 movie premiere
1 take out order of pizza
6 kids with colds at some point
19 Disney resorts visited

Florida February: March 1. 2020

(click here for today's pictures)

I have tried to think of a word to put in front of March since all of last month was Florida February. I thought about Mournful March or Melancholy March, but I will probably just stick to March! We have been a bit mournful and melancholy today.

We had a blast in Florida-just having a few less responsibilities really made a difference. Of course some of those responsibilities we did miss a little. I will be glad to get back to a normal school schedule. I am also planning on getting rid of a few things (500 to be exact) in this house. I figure if we have less things, then we will also have less responsibilities in taking care of those things.

Anyway, I am rambling because I am a bit tired. We had set our alarms for 4:30. Robby though never really sleeps well when we have to wake up early. He was in the shower before the alarms sounded. We needed every bit of that time because it was 5:15 when we pulled out of the house.

The kids all woke up well. Most of them already had clothes in the car so they just pottied and brushed their teeth before getting in the car. Robby loaded the car while I took sheets off the bed and looked in every single drawer and cabinet one more time.

We knew pretty early in the drive that Whitman felt bad. Last night he acted a bit pitiful leaving the park-I even carried him some. He told me that he had a headache. By the first rest stop this morning, he was able to tell me that it was his ear that was hurting. He just stared out the window or tried to sleep for most of the drive. He played on his ipad some, but not that much.

We did stop once to get the ear ache drops out of the bag. I had used all of my tylenol so I didn't have any of that to give him until we picked up some on the way home tonight. You know he is sick when he eats one bite of mac and cheese, one bit of hamburger, and one lemonhead all day long. We were finally able to get him to drink a bit this evening. And yes, the alarm is set for first thing in the morning to call and get him a doctor's appointment. We haven't yet decided if I am going to get Campbell an appointment too-her cough sounds like she has smoked for 20 years.

We stopped a few times for the bathroom and gas. Once Anderson had to wait forever for a stall and once the women's bathroom line was crazy long. Lunch was KFC which was fun. We never really eat there so we certainly enjoyed that. Though it is a bit difficult eating mashed potatoes and gravy in the car-it is even more difficult to pass it out to everyone!

We probably could have made it home before eating, but we still drove through McDonalds for hamburgers for our supper. Once we made it home, the kids were great about unpacking. Of course some worked more than others, but they all did pull their weight.

Everyone had showers while I continued to unpack. I believe that I have about 3 or 4 bins left to unpack plus my bag. That isn't too bad. Of course, we have one load of laundry dry, one in the dryer and I should put one in the wash, but don't think I can stay awake that long!

The kids will do some school tomorrow, but they are all excited about putting their pins up. I will say that the kids have enjoyed trading pins so much on this trip-they might even have to get some in the Easter baskets. And our usual "Trip by the Numbers" post will happen tomorrow night. (I made a list today of things to put, but I am afraid that it got thrown away tonight during car clean out! Eeek!)

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