Weekly Wrap Up: Fireworks, Gardening, and Looking for Mother Quotes

• 
• Tweet
• Sumo

• 
• Tweet

In my life this week… Last Saturday our friends brought fireworks.  That was so much fun! To our amazement, one of our dogs, rather than fleeing in terror, wanted to chase them.   

Our garden is about 1/3 planted.  It’s been dry and hot and windy, so I think we may need to replant a few things.  I’ve been busy pulling up the microscopic late spring weeds.  If I can keep up with these little ones for the next few weeks, we should have a weed-free garden all summer.   The strawberries and red currants are starting to form, and the radish roots seem to be swelling already.

One of the dogs stripped the bark from our heritage apple tree (yep, chasing a cat), and the only way to—perhaps—preserve the tree was, apparently, to jigsaw-puzzle the bark back on immediately. Yes, almost 100 pieces, stripped from the trunk and several branches!! Five days later, the tree looks healthy and no leaves are drooping. What a blessing! Later we discovered a few more trees he had attacked, but he didn’t hurt them much.

I was astounded and thrilled when Mama Squirrel based this week’s Carnival of Homeschooling on my post Floatin’ Down the River Again (AKA Homeschool Phys Ed).    I’ve had a few other honors as a blogger, most recently being voted Star Blogger at No Ordinary Blog Hop for March, but to me being featured on the Carnival of Homeschooling was very special.   

In our homeschool this week…

Early in the morning, when it’s still cool enough, we head out to the garden.  After an hour of planting, weeding, grubbing out raspberry roots, watering, etc., we head to the pool for a refreshing break.  On good days we’re studying by 10. 

So of course we’re not doing as much bookwork as usual.  French and Dutch, especially, are being neglected and so are other things.  But that’s life during planting season, and there’s a lot to learn from gardening as well.

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…  Spring planting and fall harvesting always interfere with our bookwork.  Every family has some things that get in the way of book learning. We need to remember that it is OK, that real life is also full of important learning.

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing… Friends, neighbors, library, stores. And church, of course.  That’s so basic I haven’t been mentioning it, I noticed.

My favorite things this week were…

• friends and fireworks
• good food
• warm weather
• the zero-gravity lawn chairs my husband bought
• sitting under out the butternut tree with a dear lady from our past, watching a chickadee and listening to the river
• watching the kids enjoy the pool

Questions/thoughts I have…  I’m looking for quotes from famous mothers for a baby shower.  It’s been a wonderful search, because I’ve rediscovered all my mothering books and am inspired to reread them…but I have very few quotes so far.  Do you have any?

Things I’m working on…

• Planting and weeding the garden.
• Picking and eating asparagus.
• Eating from our freezer and pantry.    
• Walking more.
• Just trying to keep up during this busy season

I’m reading… Titus. One tired evening I whizzed through Father Goose, about a sculptor who travels with migrating birds for pure joy and in order to learn how to help the whooping cranes. I am almost finished reading a marvelous book of historical fiction, Crushed Yet Conquering, and hope to post a review soon.    

With the kids, I’m reading 1 Thessalonians, L’Abri by Edith Schaeffer, The Story Bible for Older Children, and various books for school. The Little Misses and I have no read aloud at all right now! There’s just too much to do outdoors.

When my husband is home for meals, we’re still reading Isaiah.

I’m grateful for … Time and freedom.

A quote to share… In my search for quotes about mothers, I came across this one from The Mother At Home by John S.C. Abbott

“If you would be the happy mother of a happy child, give your attention, and your efforts, and your prayers, to the great duty of training him up for God and heaven.”  P 15

If you have any quote about or by a famous mother, or any mothering quote at all, please mention it in the comments.  Thanks so much!

**********************

This post is linked to The Homeschool Mother’s Journal and to Weekly Wrap Up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.