Every week I like to take a moment to showcase the moments that brought me the most joy, but also keep it real with the chaos. The key is seeing that despite the chaos, there is still so much good! Sometimes it’s awesome activities and other times it’s a sweet moment between the kids. There are always moments that can fill us with joy if we choose to see them with a thankful heart.
Oh my, oh my, oh my. It was our first full week of summer break with all five kids at home.
I’m going to be completely honest with you.
It was not a great week. We had some ROUGH days. But still so much good. Only looking back through the week do I really see just how good it was… despite the not so good.
First thing on Sunday morning we discovered that Cade had gotten sick during the night. Oh, and to make it better? All five kids were sleeping in the same room that night. We knew it was only a matter of time before it hit someone else. Needless to say, I did not take any pictures on Sunday.
But then Monday came and Cade seemed perfectly normal. No fever, no icky feeling in his tummy, just tired. I still made him hide in his room with a bucket just to be safe, but overall he seemed significantly better and no one else was feeling off.
We had a decent storm last Monday so while Cade was in bed the rest of the kids played with Play-Doh.
The big boys and I started reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. We get through about half a chapter each day in order to stretch it for the summer but once the books get longer we might have to take on a chapter or more each day! This is such a fun thing to do together and I love listening to all their theories and ideas.
On Tuesday I let Cade back into the general population since he didn’t get sick on Monday at all and seemed totally fine on Tuesday… until dinner. He didn’t want to eat so I told him to go lie down on the couch. Bad idea. He got sick all over it 🙁 Micah swung by the store on the way home to get more cleaner and Cade was sent back to his room.
On Wednesday I made a few pizzas for lunch that I prepped and stuck in the freezer last week. I’m planning on sharing that recipe/technique with you soon! (Here it is!) It’s so easy to make a bunch and bake them when needed – without the high price tag of store bought frozen pizzas!
The kids that were on the healthy side played outside… in the mud still left from Monday’s rain. I thought he found oreos at first!
I also discovered my raspberries are starting to grow! We don’t get a huge amount of berries – maybe a pint worth each summer – but it’s a fun treat to check on each day come July and August. I’ve even found berries as late as the beginning of October!
Wednesday night it hit Mercedes. We knew it was only a matter of time! Three days was longer than we expected but once she was down we took guesses as to who would get hit next. Don’t worry, I didn’t take pictures 😉
Thursday I had to get things cooking for a picnic with my MOPS group. I was in charge of buying all the hot dogs and buns so I needed to cook about 120 hot dogs to feed all the families!
I ended up needing both my 5 qt crock pot and my 8 qt Instant Pot to fit everything well enough. The picnic was awesome and we had enough food without it being overkill, so woot for a success in the midst of chaos at my house 😉
Before I left for the picnic I was able to finally pull out this kid’s tooth! Up until this summer he was stuck at two lost teeth – as a 2nd grader! His younger cousin passed him up long ago. He’s had four wiggly teeth for the last four months or so and he lost one of the bottom side teeth over the first weekend in June. Now he’s at two lost teeth this summer and he’s really hoping to loose the other top tooth.
But of course the fun couldn’t last. Friday night was Anders turn to get sick. We even gave him a big pot and he still missed 🙁 We are soooo tired of cleaning all this up. Because of the immense amount of germs and this storm rolling in, we stayed at home all day on Saturday. Of course, either of those things is a good reason to stay home!
It was a good thing we did because Jamison and Mercedes both got sick on Saturday. Did I mention that we are super, duper, duper done with this whole thing?
And we continued to make the kids sit with buckets (with 4 of them sick, what was the point of a quarantine?). We joked that the next time one of them gets a tummy bug we are going to make them all lick each other or drink out of the same water to get it over with faster. Dragging this out for a week is awful for everyone.
And yes, we use giant stock pots for sick buckets – the handles and depth are perfect. But don’t worry – we don’t cook in these! 😉
where did you find joy in the chaos this week? What was your favorite part of the week?
