During second hour at church on Sunday they introduced the new youth curriculum. It will be interesting to see how the new change of having sunday school and then RS/EQ/YW/YM will go. I am sure the changing of classes is going to take awhile before everyone actually does that promptly and quietly.
Monday after Ben got back from school, I took him, Ruby and Penny to Chuck E. We hadn't been for awhile so the kids had a good time. Chuck E came out to do a dance and then jumped on the mini carousel with Ruby and another toddler after. I felt slightly awkward watching a grown up in a mouse suit ride the carousel with my kid, but I think Ruby thought that was cool. When we finished up there we went to Costco for lunch. Penny and Ruby always get smoothies and Ben loves the hot dog and soda combo.
Tuesday was the girls' first day of school and the boys' first day of college. Lucy got to do PAW Patrol again (even though the lady in charge kept forgetting to email us about it) and meanwhile Penny was worried she would not be able to find her classes because they had re-numbered the classrooms. It is such a small school that Penny could probably walk through it in less than 5 minutes, I wonder how she will feel about high school?
I dropped the girls off and then Ruby and I had a very chill day. I took her to Dollar Tree to get some coloring books and then we did some school- we learned about the letter "A". I really want to teach her but I am not sure the curriculum I bought will work for me. It requires printing and prep and I think I probably need something I can just open up and do. I'm not sure this one is sustainable. Ruby seemed pretty good at entertaining herself that morning so I ended up also finding time to bake some muffins and make some salsa. I wish I had more time to cook. I like eating homemade things.
Tuesday evening Ben had a soccer game. It didn't end up starting until 8pm due to the hot weather. Lucy was nice and offered to watch Ruby so Grams, Tyler and I could all go watch the game. It was a great game to watch. His team ended up with a mercy win 9-1. Ben got to play for about 20 minutes and had some good moments out there.
Wednesday morning we had our first day of homeschool work. It wasn't terrible because their wasn't too much to do. After they finished their work we went to the Back to School Picnic. It was so hot but thankfully I was able to spend most of our time there sitting at a shady bench chatting with Nahoko while Ruby played at the splash pad. I think this was Ruby's first time at a splash pad which is crazy to me. It's hard having older siblings who don't like to do younger kid things. Lucy spent her time hanging with Mila and Penny flitted from friend to friend because I don't think she really has a bestie this year- just lots of friends in different friend circles.
Wednesday night I went to Grace's where I continued to work on my paint by number.I am making slow progress but progress all the same. She has had a bit of a rough week and we are both just in the thick of motherhood with raising teens so that always leads to good conversation. Later on that night, after I was safely back home, we had a crazy lightening storm. Non stop flashes and thundering. That does not soothe me like it might others, so it took me a bit to fall asleep.
Thursday, after I dropped the girls off at school, Ruby and I met Kara at a park near the girl's school. It was soaking wet from the storms the night before, but thankfully we had a towel. Ruby and Amelia spent most of their time swinging. Then we went for a short walk by a river. It was actually a pretty deep and swift river so Ruby had fun throwing sticks in it and watching them float away. In the hour we were there it started warming up pretty good and with high humidity we decided it was time to head out.
After the park we went to the library and as we were driving home from the library, we could hear tornado sirens. That was worrisome but we ended up just getting a downpour and nothing too crazy. Later, after I picked up the girls from school, we were chilling when Tyler called me and told me that he was heading to the basement at work for a tornado warning and he told me I should go get his HAM radio because it seemed like it might head our way. The radio said the effect was for Livingston county and not Oakland so I thought we were fine. Ruby, Lucy and I were outside listening to thunder when suddenly my phone blared a tornado warning. I quickly gathered the kids- everyone was home- and we were heading to the basement when I got a call from the Sister missionaries. They said they were 5 minutes away from us and wondered if they could shelter with us. I said of course, and told them they could shelter with me or my parents. I thought I would shuffle us all over to my parents since they have a nicer basement and then we could have the missionaries go there, but when I opened the door it was pouring and windy and I thought that was probably not a great idea. I sent my kids went to our basement- Penny was crying and all her older siblings were bullying her and we were pretty much a disaster. Meanwhile our power went out and I was waiting for the missionaries to leave their car and come in.
I went to both doors looking for them and somehow missed them. I thought about leaving the doors open but I could barely open the storm doors against the wind. After much too long they came to our side door and I got them inside. They were drenched. I think what had happened is that they went to our front door when I was at our side door and then they went to my parents door while I was at my front door. I feel awful about the whole thing but thankfully they ended up inside with us and safe in our basement- dripping puddles on the floor because they were so soaked. At least by that time all my kids had chilled out. I was trying to be the grown up and keep everyone calm and find flashlights and listen to Tyler's radio. I don't like being the one in charge- Tyler is better at these things. Eventually we deemed it safe to go upstairs and gratefully our house took no damage but many of our neighbors did not fair so well. Our neighbor's tree fell on their garage and hit a small part of our fence. There was another neighbor who had a tree fall on their house. It looks like a war zone.
We were still out of power that evening. Tyler had gotten the generator on but it just felt like too much of an ordeal to get the oven hooked up and cook dinner so we went out to eat at Culver's. While we were out eating, my parent's power came back on, but not ours. They are lucky!
We still had no power Friday. Gratefully the storms had cooled the temperatures so it wasn't boiling in our house- just dark. I was going to do a day trip to Port Huron with some of the kids after lunch but the weather was iffy so I ended up taking the kids to Target instead. Totally just as exciting, ha. I saw someone from our ward who was also without power. We commiserated. The only other real excitement Friday, was watching the neighbors get the tree removed from their garage roof with a crane.
Saturday we still had no power. Ben, Ruby, my mom and I ended up taking the trip to Lake Huron. We stopped at Chick Fil A on our way there- I think that may have been the only reason Ben and Penny came with us. Then we went to Lakeport State Park Beach. I realized too late that my license plate did not have the state park pass on it which is frustrating because I know we asked for it at the dealership. Thankfully no one ticketed us. Our time at the lake was really nice. At first their was slight drama because a small wave splashed Ruby in the face and that scared her, but then Ben and Penny went out deeper into the lake with her and she was quite happy to let the waves rock her (since Ben was holding her). When Ben got tired to standing in the waves with her, he came back to shore where we learned she was still terrified of the shallow water. Then we built some sand castles and then made some "art" with rocks that we found. After that, they went out one more time in the water and it was time to go home.
.heic)
