We Thank Thee Dear Father

We seem to have a history of illness at Thanksgiving.  (And Christmas, for that matter....)  When we lived in the tiny apartment, it was stomach flu.  The next year, we spent Thanksgiving with dear friends in Pennsylvania.  I think I had a bad cold and a breast infection.  I don't remember the next Thanksgiving, but the one after that, the week previous we had a horrible stomach bug (Noro virus or something like that—it was going around Chicago) and then the actual week of Thanksgiving, nearly everyone at my parents' house (except us because we'd had it the week before!) had the same thing.  Ugh.

This picture makes me happy.  Stomach bugs do not.

This year, it's a bunch of sniffles, colds, a fever for the baby (that lasted forever and accompanied other symptoms, but he's now on the mend), and other stuff for other family members.  I'm sure we'll all be well enough to travel (barring any unforeseen stomach flus!), but it's been a little hectic getting ready for the big day and trying to fit in some school while a certain cute boy wants to be held all the time.

This is a healthy Johnny.

Who happens to be diving into a bowl of bacon.

What's odd about that?

What's been nice today is that the kids have been coming up with all kinds of things that sound to my ears like "school," all on their own!  Maggie wants to start a weather chart to document the daily weather.  Later she did some phonics at Starfall, and then she followed that up with inquiring about "curvess" (cursive), pulling out the letter formation chart to check it out (she was shocked by the cursive b and also surprised that the uppercase E looks like a backwards 3), and finally tracing some block letters to spell various words.  Next on her self-made agenda is playing the game Mastermind (which I think fills the Math void for the day).

Baths followed by french braids provide the curls.

Meanwhile, her sister Susannah tagged along and while Maggie was tracing, Susannah was writing out the alphabet from start to finish.  Right now, they've been playing happily for some time, and John has again fallen asleep in my lap, as he still seems to need about three naps a day to recover from his illness.  At least he's cheerful today and letting me put him down to go to nap occasionally!

Something intellectual, certainly, going on here with Grandpa K.

Most of our days are not quite so free-form (or at least, I do make them sit and do various workbooks and read from previously chosen—by me—books), but it's so helpful for them to have so many interests all on their own on a day when I need to get our lives back together after tending to a sickie!

Fr. Andrew and Grandma K.

As we prepare for Thanksgiving, I am thankful for my kids' inquisitive minds, for our (mostly) healthy bodies, for the good food we will have, and for a holiday that brings my dispersed siblings back together in the home of our parents once again. Yes, there will be plenty of sibling revelry this weekend.  God bless!

This girl gives me lots of love.  :) 

*Photos from our trip to Schmidt's Sausage Haus and Restaurant in Columbus, Ohio.  Isn't it impressive that we managed to capture all of us at some point on this outing?

Mug Shot

I'm very particular about the mugs I use.  This quirk of mine particularly struck me tonight as I gazed into our china cabinet at over ten different mugs, considering the merits of each, and instead of choosing any of them, went to the dishwasher still in progress.  Out of the steam, I picked the one I'd been looking for, my North Park University mug.

Thinking about it, I've been this way for a long time.  I've given my Mom several mugs over the years, and in all the instances, part of the impetus towards the gift was to provide me with something pretty and feminine to drink out of when I come to visit.

More recently, my brother used to live with us.  He owned a set of colorful stacking mugs that sat in our kitchen.  One day I confided in him that there were certain colored mugs that I refused to drink from because I disliked the hue.  I think he just shook his head.  But as I was visiting his new apartment a few days ago, and the coffee was nearly ready he asked, "So, would you feel more comfortable drinking out of an orange mug or a blue one?"  Definitely blue.

The one's I rejected tonight?  First of all, my regular set, which we registered for when we were married.  I really like these dishes: white with a blue border and blue backs.  Sturdy, hardworking, easily matched with other patterns.  But not in the evening.  Not after a long day.

My regular set is my go-to for morning coffee.  They are the right size: not too small (too little beverage) or too large (beverage gets cold before I can finish it).  No words to read early in the morning.  Just calm white and blue mugs that evoke images of hearty farm-house crockery.  But in the evening, I can't face their peppy shape.  All day long they are telling me to wake up!  Get the kids dressed!  Let's get doing our school for the day!  Get that clean!  Figure out what's for dinner!  What do you have to do tomorrow!  You can do it!  Rah!  Rah!  Rah!

Not now.  At this moment I crave a mug that can receive my exhaustion.  My NPU mug is not my idea of pretty or feminine.  It's a dark blue and has straight sides.  In a way, it's "all buisness."  It is connected across what feels like many years to dim memories of studying through the night in college.  It's there to keep me going just a little longer.  It's not for a night of cheery, intentional relaxation as would be my over-sized Touchstone or AFR mugs, but for an evening of "Finally, I'm done."  Hard work was done today, and now you may rest, this mug tells me.

Giveaway at Praying With My Feet

A good bloggy friend of mine, Mat. Anna at Praying With My Feet, is celebrating 1000 posts and having a giveaway! 

Click on over to her post to enter to win the above lovely handmade quilt!

Congratulations on reaching this blogging milestone, Matushka!  Many years and many more posts!

September Busy-ness and Some Baby News Thrown In

I'm sure that as soon as I get into writing this post, John will decide his nap is over, but I'll start anyway.  :)  We have been into our homeschooling schedule for about three or four weeks now.  I'm pleased to say that it is actually rather enjoyable, the kids have declared they "love math!", and the house is in no more disarray than it usually is.

Today, instead of jumping into our usual homeschooling day, I planned a housecleaning day.  I've been intrigued by this idea of once-a-month cleaning.  I have the suspicion that I probably only get around to changing the sheets, scrubbing the tub, or mopping the living and dining rooms about this frequently (or less), so it wouldn't be a radical change.  But by doing it all at once and scheduling it in, I wouldn't have to feel guilty about not checking these things off the weekly to-do list for weeks on end.

Of course, instead of actually getting into the actual cleaning, I instead opted to clean up from the massive explosion of clothes upstairs as necessitated by (a) the weather and (b) my new shape—wow, wait!  I've been so busy homeschooling, etc., that I haven't announced why I have a new shape.

Yes, we are expecting Number Four!

(Did I really just say four?)  I am due March 14 (anyone want to hope for a St. Patrick's Day baby?).

OK, so with that out of the way, back to the clothes.  I sorted through many random laundry basket, have resolved to get myself a dresser (rather than the baskets-under-the-bed-and-in-the-closet "system" I've had for a while), laundered two loads of towels and have a lights load ready and waiting for me to get off the computer, fed us all lunch, straightened the kitchen counter, and got the dishwasher running.  I'm even dressed, showered, and somewhat groomed!

(I'm mainly typing this out to convince myself that I have more to show for my morning than two loads of towels!)

So, I now hear the boy waking up—that's my cue to get the next load of laundry in and then get him.  I hope to get back here soon with a photo of our new living room wall art!  :)


 

Walk Accomplished!

We made it out again today for a little walk before starting a sort of trial school day.  (We're officially beginning on Monday, but I need a few dress rehearsals to remind what I still need to do!)  Since we had luck with the flower garden in a neighbor's front yard last week, we ambled over there again today.  We also visited yesterday, but as it was raining, there was no wildlife to spot.

A cursory glance did not reveal any butterflies, but suddenly I noticed something bigger!  A small, bright yellow bird perched on a flower and nibbling at it!  I hushed the kids and tried to point it out quickly.  A few moments later it was gone.  Maggie (6 years) had seen it, Susannah (4 tomorrow) had not.  I promised I'd go home a look up a photo online.

I discovered many photos that looked like this little fellow:

From www.birdjam.com on the American Goldfinch page.

Then I wondered what the American Goldfinch sounded like and at the above website (www.birdjam.com), I found a place to listen to birdsong!  Lovely.

Now, maybe I was imagining it or just so unfamiliar with different birds' songs that I can't tell the difference, but a song that was quite similar to the American Goldfinch's kept wafting in the open window as we were sitting in our school room doing our math....

I'm really enjoying Charlotte Mason's focus on nature and especially becoming familiar with the plants and animals in your particular area.  How useful!  I feel so much more connected to my surrroundings just knowing a tiny bit about them.  That's a Maple, this is Queen Anne's Lace, we just saw a Red Admiral and an American Goldfinch!  The internet makes it so easy to identify the wildlife you see on a brief walk.  And of course Anna Botsford Comstock had something to say about it too.  And then there's plenty of fodder for the Nature Journal, which is just the first step into Science.

Oh, and for fun, I was going to add this video, too.  For some reason, this bird comes to this family's window every day and knocks!

One More Week, Kind Of

The school year is approaching!  Amazingly, I'm looking forward to reclaiming routines.  While in some ways this feels like The First Real Year of School (we actually have a math curriculum this year), in other ways, I've been here before.  I've done Fall.  I have some resources and ideas stashed away (somewhere) and some activities that would be fun to repeat.  (Leaf window art, anyone?)

Lovely books are coming to our house almost daily.  I finally ordered a new calendar for this year.  Fr. Andrew and I have used these for several years and love them.  I didn't order one last year because I was going to try going digital, but it totally destroyed my calendaring abilities!  I entered things in there and then because I am apparently rather visual, it was like they were just gone!  I'd completely forget they existed.  I even tried printing paper calendars from iCal to hang on the wall, but then I was entering info in two places again.  So, paper it is!

I looked at the Ambleside curriculum I'm planning to follow, and to use their week-by-week schedule and be able to take off the weeks where I know school just won't happen (and to avoid having to go too long into next Summer), we actually need to start next week!

So, this week, we need to get the school room cleaned up, for one.  We've been starting to get back into a semblance of a morning routine, and I'd like to continue adding things to that this week, maybe even Math.  (A wise, veteran homeschooling Mom friend of mine once told me not to start everything all at once, but rather to stagger.  Genius!)

I'm a bit worried about how I am possibly going to stick to a school schedule and still get all the household things done.  I'm not good at doing little bits of everything all day long... I do better with big chunks of time.  If I plan to school in the mornings and then assign a household chore to the afternoons, it looks something like this:

Monday:

• AM: School
• PM: Housecleaning and Quick Laundry

Tuesday:

• AM: School
• PM: Desk (bills and budget, planning, menu, bulletin... this is way too much for one afternoon)

Wednesday:

• AM: School (somewhat shortened?)
• PM: Groceries (This is not an ideal time. Don't all the sales start on Thursday?)

Thursday:

• AM: School
• PM: Baking and other cooking projects (stock, etc.... I wish I could confine this to one day, and one consistent day.  Maybe my kitchen would be less likely to explode that way.)

Friday:

• AM: Homeschool Co-op
• PM: Laundry and Quick Clean

I'm still not sure about this.  The Friday tasks seem like a lot for a day I've spent out of the house.  But I suppose they can be tweaked.  I was going to start doing these this week, but I've already had to be out of the house today (to visit with a moving friend, so it was completely worth it—plus, I just can't stay inside on these perfectly temperate weather days when I know disgusting, cold, Chicago Winter is coming).  I do still have a little time for at least some straightening and maybe some bathroom scrubbing.

I haven't had a housekeeping plan for so long on purpose, and I hope I'm not going down the same route again by trying to make one.  But I do feel like certain things are being missed.  I think I also need some detailed checklists for the tasks that I'm planning to do so that I don't have to stand around scratching my head and reinventing the wheel each week.  But that can wait until I've had a few weeks to practice.

This may be another post where all you veteran homeschooling Moms are guffawing into your elbows, so bare with me.  And come back and comfort me in a few months when I am doing None of the Above.

{pretty, happy, funny real}: New Living Room!

{pretty}

Remember last week when I was lamenting that I had a less-than-pretty view when I opened my front door?  Well, it turned out that moving the homeschool shelf was the missing piece to my living room jigsaw!

Here's the before picture to refresh your memory:

Looking back at this, it's not exactly ugly, it's just that the first thing I noticed was the pile of papers on my desk.  :(

Here is what I've got now!

I'd like to improve the wall art, but this is so much better!!

{happy}

My desk is now (at least initially) hidden behind the door.  And actually, I love sitting over here by the windows with the breeze blowing around me.  The internet is a tad slow being this far from the modem, but we'll have to see what we can do about that....

I've had fabric meant to recover that chair for years.  Must. Acquire. Crowbar. And. Staple gun.

{funny}

What would a {phfr} post be without some photos of this guy?

I put out the ottoman for one of these shots... reminded me why I don't leave the ottoman out.  Not to mention the underside is all cracked and full of nails sticking out at odd places.  Nice for putting up feet, though!

I then put away the ottoman, but John protested so much I gave him the pillow.  He likes to "sleep" on small pillows like this.  Normally, he gets the right end on the pillow, though.

{real}

As in, we REALly need some storage back here.  I was hunting around on craigslist for something to put in the place of the homeschool shelf.  Good thing I didn't find anything I really liked, because that was where the TV needed to go to make this new arrangement work!  Now I'm hunting for some kind of long and low shelving or buffet or cabinetry to put back here under the windows.  I do love that it's open now, but we need the book storage space!  And I also like couches in front of bookshelves.  Makes it feel like a library.

Linking up...