Math on the Bathroom Floor

Kenzie & her dad doing math on the bathroom floor.

About a month ago we went to St. George for a weekend soccer tournament. My kids missed 2 days of school. After getting back, ALL my kids got sick one at a time just stretching out how long it lasted in our house. At some point when it's clear we're all going to get it, I almost want to tell all the kids to drink out of the same cup to get it over with faster! Much easier than stretching an illness over a month time frame. It's a crazy few days with lots of sick bodies, literally loads of laundry, sanitizing everything, and cleaning bathrooms and light switches all over the house.

See the puke bucket to the right just in case the sick kid doesn't make it to the bathroom?

That is NOT how it went down this time though. One. Kid. Sick. At. A. Time. A ton of laundry produced then washed. Bathrooms cloroxed and then cloroxed again and again. Light switches and door knobs cleaned over and over and over. All this....6 times....luckily baby Owen avoided the worst parts of the stomach bug getting away with just a bit of tummy aches and crying.

Kenzie missed a lot of school being sick. I don't send my kids back to school for 24 hours after their fever is broke and they're feeling better. End of term came fast for her and her A's went to less desirable grades with a lot of missing assignments. I'm so proud of how hard she worked to catch up on what she missed and keep up with everything else going on around her. Kenzie was working on all her catch up assignments and came in to ask for help while we were all getting ready for bed. Greg started to help her with her math. It made me laugh a little that they just sat down right there on our bathroom floor and worked on math homework.

It gave me great memories of my dad helping me and in high school my brother-in-law, Marcus, helping me. Marcus put so much time and energy into helping me understand math. I was very much an ungrateful teenager. I'm grateful now...and really feel bad! Although I've long since forgotten what Marcus taught me about with Pre-calc (because I wasn't paying attention), I've not forgotten the life lessons he taught me.

Marcus and Angie

Honestly, I was a terrible student to him, but he was patient with me. I was going through a hard time in life and as a teenage girl, boy trauma seemed to be part of that. One day Marcus came up to my room and stood in my doorway. He asked me what was wrong and I don't even know how he got me to open up and talk to him but I did. I don't even remember what I said but I remember that Marcus walked me through a thought process concerning my troubles. I remember the feeling that I had. He cared about me and what I was going through even when most people would have thought it was stupid.

Marcus holding his youngest daughter Annie. Myles walking towards them. Frontier Days 2017.

My 2 older sisters married when I was so young that I feel like my brother-in-laws are much more just like my brothers. They have been a great blessing and example in my life. I'm grateful to all my sisters for making such great decisions in who to marry. Their example helped me as I got older and started dating. I knew I wanted to marry a return missionary and priesthood holder in the temple for eternity. I knew I wanted to marry someone who would be involved and play with kids and wow is that a good thing to look for because now I've got 7 kids! I sure am grateful for how much Greg does for our family! I'm especially grateful at the end of the term for him helping MaKenzie with her math so that I don't have to be googling how to do everything I've forgotten in math!