"Shattered" Plans

After having to postpone our Christmas gathering due to Covid, we were so excited that my parents were coming to town to celebrate New Years.  We hadn't been to Holiday Acres in a while as a family, so we decided to meet there along with Steve and Patti and have a fun evening out to kick off our weekend.  The moment we pulled into the parking lot, we knew things were not going to turn out how we planned.

Dad was in the parking lot, looking for something in his truck, and when I greeted him, he told me that Mom had fallen.  I hurried inside to find that Mom had slipped on some uneven ground in the bar area and fallen, smashing her kneecap into the hard stone on the way down.  She was in excruciating pain and we couldn't move her.  It took a bit of persuading, but eventually she agreed to let us call an ambulance to help us get her into the hospital safely.  

Dad and I followed the ambulance and when we got to the Rhinelander ER and got some imaging, we found that her patella was completely shattered into many pieces.  Rhinelander does not have an orthopedic department, and Mom understandably wanted treatment closer to home, so they discharged her with a brace and pain medication and the plan to report to surgery in Eau Claire the following day.  We took her back to our house where she was able to get a little rest on the reclining sofa.  The next day was her surgery where the surgeon attempted to wire her patella back together.  The kids and I headed to Eau Claire the following day to help her manuever and stay comfortable.  We stayed for a week and the kids and I kept her company as she rested and recouped.  Unfortunately during the week we were there, Nolan developed a fever which we eventually found out was appendicitis, but that's a tale for another post... It sure was a disheartening and frustrating way to start our new year.  

 

Danzinger Family Christmas

This year, we got sick over Christmas.  We felt pretty crappy, with nasty respiratory viruses and lots of rest needed.  We decided to meet in early January, when we all felt better.  However, when Mom fell and injured her knee, we ended up coming for the whole week prior, to help her navigate post-surgery.  

Mid-week, Nolan took a turn and started in with high fevers, however around 101-102.  He had no other symptoms and we didn't really know what to make of it, so after an "all-clear" from the urgent care center, we proceeded with our plan.  

The Christmas tree was extra-crispy, and dropped tons of needles anytime anyone even walked near it, let alone touched it.  We passed the presents around and enjoyed the time together, even though it was late, Mom was injured, and Nolan wasn't feeling well. 

The kids all got ukuleles and were so excited to start playing them!  They each got many other nice presents, and of course, we had plenty of yummy food and drinks to celebrate.  It was so good to finally be together!

 

Homeschool - December

Our library now offers free passes to the Northwoods Children's Museum in Eagle River that you can check out for the day.  Our friend group headed up there to check things out and it didn't disappoint.  There was a ton for all of the kids to do and they really had a great time playing with their friends!

We discussed biomimicry and the kids were tasked to come up with an invention mimicking an amazing animal adaptation.  Olivia use tree frog toes to make climbers to climb up walls.  Nolan made an anteater tongue grabber to pick up small lost things.

The kids worked really hard on these beautiful polar bear art projects for the Co-op showcase.  They did all of the work themselves.  Nolan's was done with markers and Olivia's was watercolor and oil pastels.  

We finished our first semester of Co-op with a showcase.  The kids performed bucket drumming songs to "We Don't Talk about Bruno" and "Fireflies," showed off their PE rope ladder skills, and made some beautiful artwork for the art gallery.  Grandma and Grandpa came to watch them show off their skills.  I continue to be so blown away by the blessing that co-op and our homeschooling friends have been in our lives.  This has been the best year of homeschool yet!
 

We decided to start freezing ice blocks to build an igloo!

Olivia got this adorable make your own unicorn kit from Grandma Patti at the Christmas tea.  She loved sewing it together and it turned out so cute!

We had a huge snowstorm and the Rhinelander Schools closed.  The neighbor kids came over and they spent all morning building a huge fort in the front yard.

Our writing project this month was a 5Ws project.  Each kid chose and event or story and answered the 5W questions - Who, what, when, where, and why.  Nolan chose the story of how Athena won the city of Athens in Ancient Greece and Olivia chose the first walk on the moon.

We made suncatchers, bird feeders, and honey cake to celebrate the Winter Solstice.

The kids got these Tubelox for Christmas and built this vehicle that they can ride on!

Both older kids have been asking to start sewing so I thought they could start with making some cloth napkins for our poetry teatimes.  Unfortunately while he was practicing, the needle on the machine wiggled free and I dropped it down inside while trying to put it back.  I need my Mommy to come and help me fix it! 

We joined our friends at Northwoods Golf Course for an afternoon of sledding.  The hill was enormous and while it was fun going down, it was not so fun walking back up.  Simon liked to roll around at the bottom of the hill in the path of the oncoming sledders, so I made lots of trips down and up the hill to attempt to keep him out of harm's way.  It was exhausting, but was a beautiful warm, winter day, and the kids had fun.

The kids drew names to do a Secret Santa gift exchange.  They had a lot of fun carefully picking out things for their buddies, all while staying within the $10 budget. They were so excited to give their presents and it was great practice teaching them about the process of giving gifts.

We wrapped up our December school with a book party for, "The Very, Very Far North." We had to delay a couple of weeks because we were exposed to covid and ended up getting sick.  It made it feel so good to be back together!  We had pizza, and Snow Delights sno-cones, went sledding and played in the snow, and warmed up with some adorable Duane hot chocolate.  It was the perfect end to celebrate our favorite Dart book yet!