Well, last week was totally INSANE, and I have no one to blame but myself. Since I’d prefer to blame someone else, this is sort of a bummer, but I am in control of my own calendar, so there you go.
We did all of one day of school last week, which is really not like our homeschool at all, but I like to think we filled the other days with worthy activities, so it’s OK. Somehow, a whole semester’s worth of field trips and doctor visits happened in one week, so the bright side is that all of THAT is out of the way for awhile!
So, here’s what filled our time.
As I mentioned in my last blog post, we spent Monday morning at the orthopedist with Charlotte. These appointments always end up mid-morning, which means that there is no time for school beforehand and that it is lunchtime when we get done. So, the kids spent Monday afternoon doing some homeschool co-op work, catching up on their chores, and relaxing a bit.
On Tuesday, Elijah had a tae kwon do class at 10:30, which is usually on Thursday, but Jeremy had his six-month check-up then, so we went early. Guitar and piano lessons take up a good chunk of Tuesday afternoon, and then Elijah had a soccer game on Tuesday night.
As I think I mentioned last time, the local kids had last Friday and today off school for Columbus Day, so Elijah’s soccer coach decided to play the game during practice time to give everyone the weekend off. While Elijah’s team lost 2-1, this ended up being an awesome game because Elijah scored the very first goal of his soccer career on Tuesday night!
We were all very excited, and scoring really gave Elijah a confidence boost. He spent the rest of the game doing this whenever someone was throwing in or kicking the ball:
In case you can’t tell which one is Elijah, he’s the one with his arm up! It was a great game.
We are currently in the middle of our second year of American History, smack in the middle of the Civil War. As we live in Illinois, home of our arguably most famous president, I thought that it would be a great idea to take a field trip to the state capitol of Springfield, Illinois, to see some Lincoln sights. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum are both there, Lincoln is buried there, and the reconstructed village of New Salem is about 20 miles away from there.
While I thought that visiting was a great idea, I didn’t think it was such a great idea to go by myself with three kids, one of whom has a broken leg and one of whom is an infant. So I asked Jeff if he had a day he could take off work and go with us. The day he had was last Wednesday, October 6, so I put it on the calendar.
Unfortunately (or, perhaps, fortunately, depending on who’s looking at it), that Wednesday was also the day that I had on the calendar to get Jeremy’s six-month vaccinations. The county health department only gives vaccinations on Wednesdays, and I prefer to get them done before we go to the doctor for checkups because that keeps Jeremy’s records current. On this particular visit, Charlotte and Elijah also each needed a vaccination to finish up what they got when we moved to France.
Getting shots for France was a completely horrible experience. I had to take the kids to the health department for several of them, and my then five- and seven-year-olds acted like complete and total toddlers…and that’s being gracious. We had screaming. And kicking. And flailing arms. And all manner of ridiculous behavior.
When it was all over and the kids had been good and stuck, I called Jeff and informed him that, the next time the kids needed shots, he was going to be there, if for no other reason that to provide additional manpower to hold them down.
Back to the fortunate/unfortunate…I thought it would be swell, since Jeff was taking off work on the Wednesday that I had planned to get everyone’s shots done, to just go to the health department on our way to Springfield. After pointing out to me that the health department was the opposite direction from Springfield, Jeff sort of shrugged and said, “Whatever.”
So, we promised the kids breakfast at McDonald’s afterwards, left the house at 7:10 a.m. to get to the health department when it opened at 7:30, and were the first ones to sign in. By 8:30, we were finally out of there. Jeremy got three shots and only cried at the last two. Elijah got one shot and didn’t whimper until several minutes later. Charlotte also got one shot, but she stiffened up and cried and carried on about how much it hurt from the minute the needle got close.
I must admit, the whole situation was an improvement over last time, but COME ON! My kids are huge babies when it comes to needles! I think, however, that Jeff’s presence actually motivated them to behave a bit better, so I think that my evil plan was a success.
Afterwards, we headed to McDonald’s as promised, ate a not-at-all-nutritious breakfast, and then hit the road for Springfield, a ninety-minute drive from Peoria. And I will tell you all about our day there next time.
Have a good one!
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