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Showing posts from May, 2023

Domestic Happiness

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We have some of happiest moments while working together. We work together a lot. Every morning, we do chores together. Every evening, we clean up after dinner. On Saturday, we were all working, one doing laundry, one doing dishes, one cooking, two cleaning elsewhere... We were listening to worship music and chatting. I snapped a pic, because I was so thankful. Some of my happiest moments are quite mundane at this point. We're part Ox Cart Man, part Little House, and this routine, domestic happiness is precious to me. 

An Uncommonly Common Saturday

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Dwayne made us all bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches Saturday morning. The smell of bacon has the most profound effect on pre-teens and teens who are usually happy to stay in bed reading until noon.  With Norah home for the summer, the girls had the idea of going to the thrift store together, something they all truly enjoy and enjoy even more when they can go together.  I made them do all their chores first, and shower, I did my chores first and showered, too.  But I was happy to take them, happy to be free to so. Most days, there are a few things on the calendar, but I actually had a full day off for once.  My kids have none of the prejudice against old, used, or even dusty and broken things that I would expect them to have. So to them, entering a thrift store is the start of a treasure hunt.  And the prices there make shopping much less of a liability and much more fun.  And the girls always do well to find the good things hidden in any thrift store.  Adele found a new, adorable, stu

Pictures of This Busy Season

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I've included a collection of random pictures taken in this busy season.  The girls were invited to a friend's music recital. It was a lovely Sunday afternoon event with the most outstanding musicians.  I make dinner often and with Norah home from college, it's a cherished time together in conversation. With three, well-disciplined daughters, I don't often have to clean up. There's a picture of Avril washing pot and pans, showing mock rage because everyone keeps piling dirty dishes into the sink.  I've hosted two Classical Conversations events this past week alone. (I have another event early next week.) One was a Scribbler's Playdate at the park with more than thirty people. The other was a Lost Tools of Writing training, also with more than thirty people. My family was with me for both events, helping me. The great thing about homeschooling is that it's a family affair, and we don't live lives separate from our children. I took a photo at the end o

Summer Mornings

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Norah's home!

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Norah's home from college! And she's unpacked. And she's at work today already earning and saving money for college this fall.  Above is a photo of us reading The Fellowship of the Ring together.  It's nice to have her home again and at our read-alouds, at the table, and at church, etc. 

Welcome Home!

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Lord willing, my oldest arrives home from her first year of college today! We've put out the "Welcome Home!" signs and decorations. Her sisters are so, so ready to have her home, and I am, too. I have missed having my oldest around to talk to. She's called often enough while she's been gone to college, but I still can't wait for all the conversations that will happen while she's home for summer. When you homeschool, you really get to have a real relationship with your teens, and having her gone to college and too far away to talk to throughout the day has been the hardest thing. But of course, I'm happy she's in college and that's where the Lord wants her to be. But I'm so thankful for this summer vacation! 

Summer Cleaning, Reorganizing, and Leisure

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I have been directing Challenge A for my community the last six weeks of this year. Today was the first day following my last day directing Challenge A, so after starting the day with prayer and reading Scripture and the other books I'm currently reading: The Knowledge of the Holy and Whatever Happened to Penny Candy ?, I started another new puzzle, this one 2000 pieces, as I listened to Professor Carol's lecture on Don Giovanni.  After that, I started deep-cleaning my classroom and school supplies while listening to several new-to-me podcasts on Classical Education. I purged old papers, preserved the girls' artwork and school projects in storage boxes, reorganized supplies, files, and bookshelves all over the house, and thoroughly cleaned out and reorganized my classroom closet. I worked all day, my feet are aching, but I am satisfied with all I've accomplished.  As I type this, I'm listening to a lecture on Art History from Delightful Art Co.  As I worked all day

Tradition!

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My kids love to quote the quotes and sing the songs from Fiddler on the Roof as they go through their days.  "If I were a rich man..." And "Tradition! Tradition!"  Speaking of tradition, my kids seem to love observing tradition so much, they will take every opportunity to make tradition out of anything and everything.  When my oldest daughter went through Challenge B years ago, she made me wait until after her short story was written and published by her Challenge B director to actually read it.  This somehow became common knowledge in the household, so my middle daughter wanted to do the same.   As she went through Challenge B this last year and as she was writing her short story for Challenge B, she also insisted on making us wait to hear her story until after it was finished and after it had been published by her director.  She read it to us the other evening, just as our oldest had done, and naturally, we discussed her story with her just like we did with our ol

Another Homeschool Year Done, Summer Begins

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Adele is done with another year of Foundations and Essentials. Avril's done with Challenge B.  Avril spent some time cleaning out her desk and notebooks. She felt so much pride and relief and excitement at having finished another year of Challenge and having started another summer vacation.  That picture above shows the stack of papers she threw out, much of which was from Mock Trial.  In the summer, my kids keep doing daily chores, of course. But I usually give them an extra chores that need to be done, since there is margin to do more housework when schoolwork isn't pressing. A few days ago, I had them dust in their rooms. Yesterday, they cleaned their bathroom thoroughly "as if we are having guests" and cleaned our big basement living room.  They keep doing math through the summer. Trial and error has taught me that math needs to go on year-round unless I want my kids to totally unlearn the discipline of sitting, focusing, and thinking math, forget basic math facts

Smashbooks Begun

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The girls went to a friend's birthday party last night. One of the party activities was creating smashbook pages. All the moms were prepared in advance, so we planned ahead and printed pictures and gathered paraphernalia that was all of the same theme, so each girl at the party could build her own page/s.  I planned it so that Avril could do a smashbook page about her recent Mock Trial for Challenge B. And I planned so that Adele could do a smashbook page on Faces of History for Essentials.  Their pages turned out great!  As the party favor, the girls were sent home with their own smashbooks, blank scrapbooks, so that they could continue adding more and more smashbook pages.  So today, the girls printed hundred of pictures and pulled out the stickers and scrapbook supplies and washi tape, etc. They added more pages with different themes such as field trips, sisters, family, and even pages devoted to specific friends.   What a fun, new hobby! And now that summer vacation has begun,

The Fellowship of the Ring

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We're rereading The Fellowship of the Ring  as our current read-aloud. Our youngest, now eleven, couldn't remember the story from the last time we read it aloud. I guess she'd know the story if my kids watched the movies, but they don't watch much of anything. So we'll probably watch the films as a family when we are done reading the books this time.  One daughter has a birthday at the end of March, the other at the start of April, so they contrived to negotiate a Rivendale Lego set for their birthday season. The deal they made was that all birthday monies from extended family would be combined to pay for a portion of the set. And they would forfeit parties and dinners out and all other birthday gifts, so that the monies that would have been spent celebrating the separate birthdays could go to pay for the rest of the set. In truth, it was an outstanding deal for their father and I. We saved a ton of money by paying for the other half of this set.  Note: We did provi