Tiring week

Last week was the first week this school year during which Anna was in school all five days, minus her Thursday afternoon therapy appointments.  Granted, kids were only in school four days during two of those beginning seven weeks.  Still, the initial observation gives an idea of how the first quarter of the school year has gone for Miss Anna ... and NONE of those absences were caused by illness.

Needless to say, Anna was t-i-r-e-d by the end of the week.  A late night on Wednesday for communion class (while the rest of us went to Ethan's preK Open House), followed by a late night on Thursday for the third grader open house contributed to that tiredness.  By Friday night, though, she was beat.

So was mom.  The sunny, breezy weather in mid-October meant that I had my hands full with garden clean up.  In addition to canning the late crop of pears and pulling up tomatoes, peppers, and their supports, Ethan and I dug the sweet potatoes on Wednesday afternoon.  Although the sweet potato crop wasn't quite as stellar as last year's, it will still feed us for a good portion of the winter.  Friday we completed the garden tasks by tilling up most of the space; we still have some broccoli and peapod plants that are producing a little bit.  We also started on the leaf raking/collecting work of the season.

All this made for a tired momma by the end of the week, made worse by the fact that we had more nighttime disruptions than we have had in a long time.

Saturday morning the kids played, played, and played in the basement.  Here's a snapshot of their creativity and fun.

Thankfully, the whole family is very supportive when it comes time to clean up these elaborate set-ups, especially if they know it needs to be done before anyone can watch TV.

Meanwhile, Matt and I worked on more of the outside fall tasks.  With our modified pool set-up this year, we will be leaving the pool partially filled for the winter, but having it "closed down" with extra bleach and a fancy cover.  We'll see how it all goes.

Saturday afternoon was dubbed "load firewood into the basement" time.  The older the kids get, the more willing and able they are to help with physical tasks like this.  Hooray!

A few hours later, two full truckloads of firewood were into the basement storage area ... but that made for a tired and sore Mom AND Dad this time.  Maybe next year Kate and Ethan will take on even more of the responsibility :)

A few different times in the past week, Anna has opted to try out the harness in the basement again.  This particular set-up helps her practice standing and balancing while being protected by a few different bungees from hitting the ground too hard when she falls.  We've been known to have dance parties down there with her :)  This weekend it was a silly game of catch.

And finally, before I forget, here's a somewhat blurry picture of Kate walking in with the other 3rd graders for their music program that was in conjunction with Thursday night's Open House.

One of the coolest parts was that the kids looked like they were having SO much fun while they were singing.  Our school is very blessed by the different talents of all the educators.